Ben Shelton makes winning start in Barcelona

Ben Shelton defeated compatriot Mackenzie McDonald at the Barcelona Open 7-5 6-4 to advance to the next round at the ATP 500 event.

Shelton never played on clay before touching down in Estoril but he had a better winning percentage on it than Nadal after playing one match in Estoril. Jokes aside the American proved he can play on the surface and with every match he's getting more and more comfortable. A loss to Dimitrov in Monte-Carlo was respectable however today was a win for him.

McDonald has never been a good clay player and it's his worst surface by far. The American also doesn't have much power in his game so hitting through Shelton was always going to be an issue for him. It was a good match from Shelton who served well which proved a huge advantage in some crucial rallies.

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It allowed him to only allow one break point in the entire match and that's a good way to avoid defeat. McDonald allowed three and he saved only one of those which was the issue. His best stretch in the match was in the second set when he turned a 0-2 deficit into a 4-2 lead but then he lost four games in a row to lose the match.