Ben Shelton discusses decision to skip Olympics for home tennis season

America’s young tennis star Ben Shelton believes skipping the Paris Olympics in favour of the tennis season at home was a ‘good’ call. The 21-year-old is already regarded as one of the best American players currently playing men’s tennis in the singles category.

Sinner was one of the most high-profile players who decided to withdraw from the Paris Olympics to prepare for the upcoming events on home soil. Team America went on to win a bronze and a silver medal in the doubles category at the event. The Atlanta-born player was recently quoted in a report stating that, in his opinion, he ended up making the right call.

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"Really cool to see Tommy and Taylor get that medal, bronze medal in doubles, and obviously Raj and Austin fighting for the gold," he said. "I was tuned in, for sure. Also really cool to see my good friend Chris Eubanks get his first Olympics experience. It was a tough decision, but the way that our schedule is, I think it’s a good decision and a decision that I had to make. The schedule is so long, there’s no breaks. If I was to go back again to Europe, another surface change, I think with where I’m at right now, it just would have been too much."

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Shelton will now turn his attention towards the upcoming US Open 2024. The fourth and the final Grand Slam of the year will begin from Monday where players from all the world will participate to showcase their talent and secure the ultimate prize. He will begin his campaign Austria’s Dominic Thiem in the opening round of the competition on Monday. Shelton had an impressive outing in the previous edition of the mega-event where he was eventually knocked out after losing in the semifinal to Serbia’s legendary tennis star Novak Djokovic in straight sets with a score of 6-3, 6-2, 7-6.

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