America’s young tennis star Ben Shelton has joked about his father’s selection in the top coaches category in the 2023 ATP Awards.
The nominations for the mega-event were announced on Wednesday and some of the top performers including both in the players and coaches category. In the coaches category, Ben’s father Bryan was also nominated in the category of best coach for the year 2023.
The 21-year-old, in a story on his official account on the social media platform Instagram, joked about how it only took six months for his father to be nominated in the category. “Guy only needed six months to get a [nomination],” he said.
Ben is often regarded as the most highly-rated young player in the men’s singles category alongside Spain’s Carlos Alcaraz and Italy’s Jannik Sinner. The Atlanta-born lived up to the hype in the fourth and final Grand Slam of the year where he was the American player in the semifinal in the men’s singles category.
However, his journey came to an end as he suffered a defeat to the current world number one and Serbia’s legendary tennis player Novak Djokovic in straight sets with a score of 6-3, 6-2, 7-6.
Ben also won his maiden ATP title at the senior level as he defeated Aslan Karatsev in the final of the Japan Open with a score of 7-5, 6-1.
2001 - Ben #Shelton, born in 2002, is the youngest American player to win against a top-5 opponent since Taylor Dent in Chennai 2001 (v Magnus Norman) and since Andy Roddick in Canada 2001 (v Gustavo Kuerten) in a Masters 1000. Gem. @atptour @ATPMediaInfo
