By Ava Wallace and Matt Futterman
If Ben Shelton was going to have any chance, he was going to have to use his serve to start exerting scoreboard pressure.
He was getting almost nothing on Alexander Zverev’s serve, so the only thing he could do was use his own as far as it could take him. That’s about how it all went in a third set that didn’t turn until the 12th game, when Shelton finally broke through as the pressure mounted on Zverev’s being either a handful of points, or at least one more set, away from the title.
Shelton had to get there first though. And he did by dominating Zverev on his own serve. He won 19 of 21 points on his first serve and five of seven on his second serve.
Playing from behind, Zverev finally buckled, playing his worst game of the afternoon as he tried to serve the match into a tiebreak.
Shelton responded to winning the set on a missed forehand volley from Zverev by putting a finger to his left ear to ask the crowd for noise and raising both eyebrows, as if to say, “Were you all counting me out?”
The American’s body language had been generally positive throughout the match, but his demeanor after finally breaking Zverev’s serve for the first time in 67 consecutive service games was jubilant. It was as if he hadn’t already been on a tennis court for nearly three hours.
Then, all that momentum swung right back in Zverev’s direction in the first game of the fourth set. At 30-30, Zverev caught Shelton at net with a volley into his body, and Zverev hit his next shot for an easy winner. Shelton saved one break point to send it to deuce, but he gave Zverev another opportunity when his inside-out forehand, a shot that had worked well throughout the match, just missed the line wide.
