"Guy plays last night in a different country": Ben Shelton criticises ATP for poor scheduling

America’s Ben Shelton has criticised ATP for poor scheduling. The 22-year-old is currently in Basel where he will be participating in the Swiss Indoors.

Ahead of his first-round encounter, Shelton, in a post through his official account on the social media platform Instagram, criticised ATP for poor scheduling regarding France’s Ugo Humbert who was coming into the fixture straight after participating in the UTS Showdown.

"Guy plays last night in a different country, and they play him first on Monday," he wrote. Humbert’s girlfriend, Tessah Andrianjafitrimo, responded to that comment and thanked the young American. “Thank you Ben,” she wrote. Humbert went on to beat Switzerland’s Jerome Kym in the first round of the competition with a score of 6-4, 4-6, 7-5. He will face Belgium’s David Goffin in the second round of the competition.

The 33-year-old defeated Italy’s Matteo Arnaldi in the round of 32 clash with a score of 6-7, 6-3, 6-2. It will be the fourth meeting between the two. In the previous three meetings, Humbert had a slight edge where he won on two occasions and suffered a solitary defeat. Their most recent meeting took place in the first round of the Australian Open, where the Frenchman came out on top with a score of 6-2, 7-5, 5-7, 6-3. Goffin’s only win over Humbert came in the third round of Wimbledon 2022 where he came out on top with a score of 4-6, 7-5, 6-2, 7-5.

On the other hand, Shelton will begin his campaign against Argentina’s Tomas Martin Etcheverry. This will be the third meeting between the two players. In the previous two meetings, it was Shelton who came out on top. Their most recent meeting came in the Cincinnati Open earlier this year where Shelton emerged victorious with a score of 6-7, 7-6, 6-3.