Ben Shelton takes 70 seconds in 'abandoned plan' to finish suspended Wimbledon match

When Ben Shelton made his case to serve out a second-round match with Rinky Hijikata as light faded Thursday evening at Wimbledon, he declared that all it would take was a single minute.

Having missed three match points on return going into a changeover, Shelton was ultimately denied and forced to wait until Friday—with concerns that electronic-line calling would shut off in the middle of that game due to darkness. Once the American finally got his chance to seal the deal, the left-hander required 70 seconds to finish off Hijikata with a 6-2, 7-5, 6-4 victory.

“I was telling him, I only need 60 seconds (smiling). That's kind of what my goal was when I went out there today,” Shelton explained to press.

“He told me there wasn't enough time. I was like, ‘Well, has it gone down yet, or did they give you the five-minute warning?’

‘Well, they gave us the five-minute warning but we're not going to play until it goes down.’”

Having shared that maintaining a serving rhythm was a challenge Thursday, one wouldn’t have known it with how Shelton wrapped up the following day. The No. 10 seed slightly missed his first target—forehand body—but his Australian opponent completely guessed wrong to result in an ace.

From there, Shelton’s “calculated approach” went out the window. Whatever the 22-year-old was feeling worked, as he unleased two more aces and an unreturned second serve to complete the final touch.

“Once I get my first ace in a service game, my confidence goes through the roof. After that I started going for aces and abandoned the plan we had,” Shelton said.

“I kind of just improvised as it went.”

That adlibbing didn’t continue post-match, even with the super short stint on court. Sticking to routines, Shelton noted he proceeded with a cool-down.

“They're like, ‘All right, yeah. Media in like 20 minutes.’

“’Okay. Should I shower (laughter)?’” he recalled.

“ I guess just habit.”

I kind of just improvised as it went.

Shelton also confirmed he spoke with chair umpire Nacho Forcadell following Thursday’s ruling. Immediately after Forcadell announced play had been suspended to the No. 2 Court crowd, supervisor Ali Nili stepped in as a mediator when the Atlanta native approached the Spaniard.

“I guess when he saw a guy my size walking quickly towards the umpire, maybe he thought I was ready to throw hands or something. I definitely wasn't,” laughed Shelton.

“I got over it pretty quickly, and then we talked in the gym after. I just wanted to give them my thoughts about the situation. They gave me theirs on why everything happened. It didn't really escalate.”

A semifinalist at this year's Australian Open, Shelton can match last year’s fourth-round result here if he advances past Marton Fucsovics on Saturday. The Hungarian also completed a match carried over from Thursday, a 6-4, 1-6, 4-6, 7-6 (5), 6-4 victory over Gael Monfils.