Of the 18 Americans who began the men’s singles – the most of any nation – perhaps the most excitement surrounded Ben Shelton. A quarter-finalist at Wimbledon last year, the left‑hander won his first grass‑court title in Stuttgart in June and, with one of the best serves in the game, seems made for the surface.
On Tuesday the No 4 seed duly lost in the first round, beaten 6-4, 3-6, 6-7 (8), 6-2, 7-6 (9) by Otto Virtanen of Finland, the world No 140 appearing in just his second Wimbledon. Shelton led by two sets to one, had chances to break in the fifth and then a match point at 9-8 in the tie‑break, only to dump a forehand in the net. Two points later the match was over, a scorching Shelton forehand landing agonisingly wide.
Shelton began the year with high expectations and reached the quarter-finals at the Australian Open. After losing in round two in Paris, he beat Taylor Fritz to win in Halle but, not for the first time in his career, got himself embroiled in another dogfight that he might have avoided. The real surprise was that he ended up losing, having won seven of his previous 10 grand slam matches.
“Tough loss,” Shelton said. “One of the toughest losses I’ve taken, for sure. I got to give a lot of credit to the guy I played, Otto. I thought he played an outstanding match.”
Fritz, meanwhile, had no such problems. The No 6 seed is the only American man now playing to have reached a grand slam final, at the 2024 US Open, and made the semi‑finals here last year. Fritz eased past Dusan Lajovic of Serbia 6-3, 6-4, 6-3, taking care of business with the minimum of fuss in just one hour and 41 minutes.
The only jeopardy in the match surrounded the appearance of Fritz, who walked on to court wearing a bespoke all-white Boss suit over the top of his tennis outfit. The 28-year-old admitted he was not too sure about it all but thought he “looked all right”.
“I feel like it was an uphill battle all day today. I was pretty off on my serve spot, so I wasn’t getting many free points. I was having to grind through a lot of the games. The guy was playing really good and downhill from the baseline. I think I had 15-40 three separate times in the fifth set. The guy came up with some ridiculous stuff in those moments, really good tennis. Sometimes it happens like that.”
If anything, he was more worried about losing. “You show up in a full outfit and get snipped in the first round, you look really stupid, honestly,” he said.
The fifth seed Alex de Minaur kicked off with a 7-6 (5), 6-1, 6-0 win against Román Andrés Burruchaga, the son of Jorge Burruchaga, who scored the winning goal for Argentina in the 1986 World Cup final. The Australian upped his game after a scrappy first set to pull away in the second and third.
“I think the way I played that first set, I need to be a lot more relaxed and not get as frustrated when maybe I’m not playing my best level,” De Minaur said. “I managed to sneak through that first set, then kind of free up and play confident tennis. I was happy with the way I was moving. I got a couple slides in, which always I feel is quite important, getting that footing and footwork on the grass court. Looking forward to the next one.”
The Queen’s Club champion, Juan Manuel Cerúndolo, went out, defeated in three sets by Jaume Munar.
