Ben Shelton closes in on US Open '25 form with return to Australian Open second week

MELBOURNE, Australia—Into the fourth round of the 2026 Australian Open without dropping a set, is this the best Ben Shelton has ever felt at a major tournament?

Not quite, says the 23-year-old. But pretty close.

“I think that, you know, the best that I've played at a Slam was up until I got injured at the US Open last summer,” Shelton said after easing past Rolex Shanghai Masters champ Valentin Vacherot, 6-4, 6-4, 7-6 (5). “I think that this is probably second, but to be in the form that I'm in as early as it is in the year is really encouraging.”

The No. 8 seed/burgeoning vlogger was indeed in fine form last summer in Flushing Meadows, coming off a National Bank Open title in Toronto and looking like a favorite for the title before a sudden left shoulder injury forced him to retire in the third round against Adrian Mannarino.

Playing back into form through the end of the season—and making his debut at the Nitto ATP Finals—Shelton has hit the ground running in Melbourne, knocking out an in-form Ugo Humbert in the first round and planting his first seed of the tournament to make the second week for a third time out of the last four.

“I think that there's a lot of things that I am doing really well, improvements that I made, and maybe small pieces that I'm doing better than I was doing last summer,” Shelton said. “But in terms of just being in a flow state, completely confident, and knowing what I'm doing on the court, all the nuances of return of serve, using continental skills on the stretch, defense to offense, I was probably just in a little bit better rhythm with all that stuff last summer.

“But I think that I'm serving much better now. I think that the way that I'm able to flatten out the forehand and change speeds on the backhand with the slice, topspin, and flat balls, I've seen improvements, for sure.”

Shelton credits consistent training to increasing his mental resilience as much as his physicality.

“Whether it's playing a practice set against someone I don't want to lose to or my coach putting on a little bit extra pressure that day or dealing with stuff physically and a lot more soreness because I'm on the court two times and in the gym as well each day…you wouldn't classify it as, ‘Yeah, I'm going to go out and work on my mental today,’ but I think the better and better you get at handling those type of things in a training session, the more that you can stay calm and the longer you can stay out there on the court and the more you can ante up and come back in the afternoon after a long morning session and give 100%,

“I think just helps when you stack it up in the grand scheme of things.”

All those improvements will likely come into play in the fourth round, where he awaits the winner of No. 12 seed Casper Ruud vs. Marin Cilic, the latter a former US Open champion. Still, Shelton has reliably stepped up at major tournaments to make him even more dangerous in best-of-five than best-of-three.

“I think that when you get to this stage in the tournament, every matchup becomes more and more exciting, because, you know, everybody is playing well, everybody is a tough matchup,” said Shelton. “You get to play so many different styles of players throughout the two weeks.

“Obviously two guys with very different styles and contrasting games, and I'll be looking forward to watching that one for sure.”

A couple more wins and Shelton might be ready to reevaluate his form relative to last summer.