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.
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).
