Ben Shelton reaches biggest clay-court final for an American man since Andre Agassi in 2002

Ben Shelton has just done something no other American man has been able to do in almost 23 years, since before he himself was even born—reach a clay-court final above ATP 250 level.

The 22-year-old edged Francisco Cerundolo on Saturday, 2-6, 7-6 (7), 6-4, to make the final of the ATP 500 clay-court event in Munich.

The last time an American man made it to a clay-court final above ATP 250 level was when Andre Agassi went on to capture the title at the ATP Masters 1000 event in Rome, in May of 2002.

Shelton was born five months later, in October of 2002.

Shelton had already survived a nail-biter in his first-round match in Munich, fighting off three match points to defeat Croatia's Borna Gojo, 4-6, 7-6 (6), 7-6 (3), and this one had almost as much danger.

After dropping a 29-minute first set, Shelton twice had to serve to stay in the match against Cerundolo in the second set, at 4-5 and 5-6, and he was twice two points away from losing in the second set tie-break, at 6-all and 7-all. And even after sneaking out the breaker, he was broken at love in the first game of the third set.

But he got that break back and stayed on serve with Cerundolo throughout the decider until pouncing again in the very last game of the match, breaking to seal a two-hour, seven-minute victory.

"It's a big win for me," the American said in his on-court interview. "Number one, to get a win on clay against a guy like that gives me a lot of confidence, and to be in a 500 final in Europe, in my second tournament of the clay-court season, I'm really happy. I'm excited.

"I feel like I've been playing really well here, I love the energy here in Munich, and I'm going to go for that title tomorrow."

Shelton will be going for the third ATP title of his career, and second at the ATP 500 level—he won the ATP 500 hard-court event in Tokyo in 2023. He also has an ATP 250 title, on clay, in Houston last year.

Awaiting the No. 2-seeded Shelton in Sunday's final will be No. 1-seeded Alexander Zverev, who dispatched Fabian Marozsan in straight sets in the second semifinal of the day, 7-6 (3), 6-3.

Zverev beat Shelton—barely—in the pair's only previous meeting in the quarterfinals of Cincinnati last summer, 3-6, 7-6 (3), 7-5.

Of the three levels of ATP tournament higher than ATP 250—ATP 500, ATP Masters 1000 and, of course, Grand Slam—Agassi was the last American man to reach a final at two of those levels.

As mentioned above, he was the last American man to reach the final of an ATP Masters 1000 event on clay, when he won Rome in 2002, and he was also the last American man to reach the final of a Grand Slam on clay, when he won Roland Garros in 1999.

The last American man to reach the final of an ATP 500 event, however, is Todd Martin, when he won Barcelona in 1998.