GC mode activated

Shelton can be taken right now and even more so on clay, but the American is a beast in Grand Slams

I’m the first one who wants to lay Shelton right now and I’ve actually done it in Hamburg against Giron then Altmaier, he’s so beatable that you just don’t want to be on his side. I can’t really figure out what’s going on because his matches aren’t bad either, he’s not at his best level but it’s far from disastrous in my opinion. It’s like he makes his opponents play well. It’s strange because we also know his attitude, which is sometimes annoying but so important in this kind of match against weaker guys where you have to push yourself. To sum up, Shelton isn’t coming in with great confidence but he’s losing to annoying players like Altmaier, Prizmic or Basilashvili…

Can we put Merida in the “annoying guy” category? The Spaniard definitely has the potential, he’s exploding this year and showing some great tennis with a big personality too! He’s got a bunch of wins this season and is already up to world no. 86, and yet he hasn’t beaten any real top players this year, his best win is Marozsan or Moutet, which is good but that’s the best he’s taken out so far and there are still plenty of losses against average players. He’s also played a lot back-to-back over the past few weeks and is taking a bit of a physical hit, which cost him his loss in Valencia. He had a solid week and a half to prepare for Roland, but I’m not really convinced he’s physically fresh either. He’s also never played a Grand Slam format match, it’s something new he’ll have to learn to handle, and that’s something Shelton does very well.

It’s hard to defend Shelton right now but even at Roland he’s often turned up, he’s a big-tournament player.