Shelton playing tourist?

The big players are ones to watch in this small pre‑GS tournament, and Shelton in particular.

This will be our friend Benny’s first match of the season. There’s little info about his current level and how he worked during the break. In his very last match he was still in a “getting back into it” phase and was planning to ramp up over the following weeks/months. Is it too early or just perfect? The real big test will be at the Australian Open, but in the meantime Shelton chose to play Auckland; it’s the 4th time he’s come here and he usually takes it seriously. His record really isn’t great though; he loses to players below his level and therefore offers no guarantees, ESPECIALLY for a comeback match. Conditions are nothing special, if the wind is too strong it can work against him and overall it’s often cool, not really the kind of tournament that gets him fired up, let’s say. Let’s talk a bit about his opponent, Comesana, who showed great discipline against Royer in the first round. After a decent loss to Shang, Comesana knuckled down and dominated the match; he’s hard to hit through and stays very tidy in the few attacking phases he has to play. He can do a bit of everything; it’s nothing exceptional on hard court but he’s improving nicely, and for a first match back I think it’s a really tricky one for Shelton. He could absolutely be focused and find his tennis right away, but watch out…