"Really, dude?": Ben Shelton responds to Austrian reporter shading U.S. World Cup team

In just under three weeks, the World Cup officially begins with its first group match. The U.S. is co-hosting alongside Canada and Mexico in bringing the men's edition of the major football (soccer) event held every four years stateside for the first time since 1994.

The American squad is currently 16th in FIFA’s latest rankings, though one wouldn’t have known it by the exchange Ben Shelton was dragged into Friday at Roland Garros during his pre-tournament press conference.

Asked one reporter, “How invested will you be in that World Cup? The U.S. team looks really bad, so what do you think?”

This back-and-forth then followed.

Shelton: ”Where are you from?”

Journalist. "I'm from Austria. We look good. We look good, I can tell you that.”

Shelton: “I don't know anything about the Austrian football team.

Journalist: “You should.”

For the record, Austria is currently behind the U.S. in the rankings at No. 24, respectively, and was drawn in the same group as defending champion Argentina (ranked third).

Shelton would go on to assert, “I was thinking that at first you were French, and I would have given you that, because they're very, very good. Now I'm, like, really, dude?

“I'll probably be more invested in Wimbledon than the World Cup, but I'll be watching, for sure.”

The left-hander is the top-ranked American in this year’s draw at No, 6, two spots ahead of Taylor Fritz. Last month, Shelton celebrated his biggest clay-court triumph when he defeated Flavio Cobolli to win the 500-level event in Munich.

He cooled off after that effort though, suffering back-to-back opening-round exits on the Masters 1000 stage at Madrid and Rome before falling to Daniel Altmaier in the second round of Hamburg Tuesday.

“It's been super up and down for me. Honestly I've been kind of disappointed in my season, and I'm sixth in the race,” he said. “But I think that that inconsistency has been a big piece for me that I've been trying to iron out and improve.

“I'm still not the player that I want to be, and I have a lot of work to do, but winning titles and going deep at slams is my biggest goals, for sure.”

Shelton opens his campaign against 21-year-old Daniel Merida of Spain. The Orlando, Fla. resident, seeded fifth, reached the round of 16 last year.