American prodigy's journey to 'Big Three' backed by tennis legend John McEnroe

Former world number one John McEnroe has once again backed America’s young tennis star Ben Shelton to join the ‘Big Three’ consisting of Spain’s Carlos Alcaraz and Italy’s Jannik Sinner. The ‘Big Three’ term became famous in tennis when the likes of Switzerland’s Roger Federer, Spain’s Rafael Nadal and Serbia’s Novak Djokovic started dominating men’s tennis.

McEnroe was recently quoted in a report expressing optimism that Shelton will join the new ‘Big Three’ in the future, which consists of Alcaraz and Sinner. "You look at the level and the depth of the modern day tennis game and you look at the modern 'Big 3' now,” he said.

“You've got probably, Djokovic is probably still one of the big players you'd expect to go far in a Slam and you've got Alcaraz. Who's that next guy? Who will be the next member of the 'Big 3' moving forward in the next 10 years. Well I was hoping it would be Ben Shelton. He's made some some great advancements and for us, in America, it'd be huge. He wasn't just focused on tennis at 10 years old, he played American football. He's a hell of an athlete.”

As things stand, Shelton has shown glimpses of his talent but has not been able to achieve something big like Alcaraz and Sinner did in recent times. The 21-year-old’s best appearance in a Grand Slam came in the US Open last year, where he was knocked out of the competition after losing in the semifinal to Djokovic in straight sets with a score of 6-3, 6-2, 7-6.

This year, Shelton’s performances have not been great as well. In the three Grand Slams, the Atlanta-born star has not managed to qualify for the quarterfinal of a major event. His most notable performance in a Grand Slam came at Wimbledon, where he was knocked out after losing in the fourth round to Sinner in straight sets with a score of 6-2, 6-4, 7-6.