Roger Federer's father shared his impression of his new favorite player, American Ben Shelton.
Ben Shelton had an impressive debut season, reaching the quarterfinals of the Australian Open, the semifinals of the US Open, and winning his first title at the ATP 500 Tokyo Open.
Recently, Roger Federer's father confessed that Shelton is his "new favorite" player to watch since the retirement of the 20-times Grand Slam champion Federer. Shelton is managed by the TEAM8 agency and wears clothing from the brand On, which is backed by the Swiss when he was still a professional.
Swiss company On, of which Roger Federer is one of the major shareholders, has announced the signing of world no. 1 Iga Swiatek, Ben Shelton and 16-year-old João Fonseca. Roger said: "They demonstrate On's competitive spirit and embody current and future champions of the sport".
The 20-year-old American recently responded to an interview with La Gazzeta dello Sport, where he talked about his impression of the Big-3 and stated that Federer is his favorite tennis player.
“I studied [Rafael] Nadal and tried to steal some secrets from him. But my favourite has always been Roger. Novak Djokovic? In three years he will still be a top five, he will still win tournaments,” Ben Shelton said.
Now, it was Robert Federer who wanted to comment on the great performance of the American and his hopes of continuing to see him on the ATP Tour:
“Wow, it’s just beautiful to look at him. I’m a big fan of his. It’s my new favourite. I am always also interested in how the parents behave,”
“I still deal with a huge pile of fan mail. You would think this would diminish after Roger retired. But this is not the case,”
Shelton finished the year as the world No. 17, ranking as the fourth American player within the top 20, behind Taylor Fritz (10th), Tommy Paul (13th), and Frances Tiafoe (16th).
