Rising tennis star Ben Shelton has completed his first year on tour as a tennis professional, and the American opened up on his experiences during the tedious season.

Following his second round victory over Dominic Thiem at the 2023 US Open, Shelton was candid about leaving college tennis a year ago to pursue a career as a professional tennis player.

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Solitude plays a big role in the life of an ATP pro, according to Shelton

"Yeah, I think it's a little bit more lonely than being in college," said Shelton when asked about the differences between being a college vs professional tennis player. "You travel with a big team, all your friends. Always staying in a hotel room with somebody else. There's not much downtime or alone time.

"Being out on tour, you have a lot more time to yourself alone in your hotel room, more time to think about things. That can be a positive or a negative (smiling). But I'd say that's one of the biggest differences for me."

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Furthermore, Shelton emphasized on the full schedule on the ATP calendar, whereas college tennis players had more breaks between seasons.

"The other difference is that there's not many breaks in the schedule. It seems like the tour is always going till December. It's just go, go, go, go. I would say I assumed, before I was out here on tour, that there were more down weeks or weeks when there weren't tournaments, but it seems there's always something going on."