A small anomaly

Shelton has never gone past the third round in this tournament, yet we’re in the USA and the courts are fast.

In 3 appearances Shelton has only won one match, otherwise he loses to Mannarino, Musetti and Wong. Very disappointing in these conditions, especially when you know how motivated he usually is in this kind of tournament. This season he arrives with a much higher level of play, he’s learned how to win while playing badly and his Indian Wells tournament last week proves it perfectly! He was sick and yet he managed to get through against Opelka, then he somehow took a set off Tien, we don’t even know how. Great resilience and I’m convinced that with this new weapon in his game (the ability to get through matches no matter what) it can allow him to win a bunch of matches. In other words, even an average Shelton can get through today against Shevchenko.

You know how much I love Shevchenko when he plays against a local/in a big tournament, he runs on motivation but the level still has to follow at least a bit behind, and that’s 100% the case right now. His last few weeks have been excellent from a tennis point of view but he’s not getting results. His win over Arnaldi yesterday was solid, especially after the first set, and he didn’t collapse after the incredible scenario of that match. He stayed very calm, which isn’t very usual for him either, great management and the guy is ready to have a blast against Shelton. He’s quite inspired offensively, he comes to the net when he needs to and doesn’t just sit back and wait, I think he can go and snatch a 7–5 or a 7–6!