Ben Shelton officially decides against playing 2024 Paris Olympic Games as USA team almost set

Ben Shelton has officially decided against playing at the 2024 Olympic Games after a tweet by the ITF put him out of contention for one of the final spots in the clay court tournament which will take place in July.

Shelton would've easily played his first Olympic Games alongside likely Taylor Fritz, Tommy Paul and Frances Tiafoe. But instead, it sures up the position of the latter in the third spot for the team. Sebastian Korda will also get in too with Christopher Eubanks, Marcos Giron and Alex Michelsen fighting for that Korda spot but would need a huge ranking rise.

Is it a shock though? Not really as Shelton set his stall out earlier this season saying that he was leaning towards not playing the Olympic Games. As ever due to the placing of the tournament and mainly the surface, the US Open preparation will be hampered with players having to go from playing on hard courts in Canada to clay and back to hard courts.

"Definitely thought about it a lot. I'd say now I'm leaning towards not going this year if I were to make it. I think it's tough in the tennis schedule this year," said Shelton back at Indian Wells. "I'll be in Europe for two months leading up to Wimbledon, and then after, I want to prepare and really get ready for the US Open. So having to go back to Europe to play on clay, a different surface, it kind of messes up a few lead-up tournaments to the US Open that I would play if I wasn't playing the Olympics. But, you know, 100% I would want to play in LA in 2028 which is on the same side of the world as the US Open and on the same surface, but I guess we'll just see. Who knows what happens this summer."