After Awesome Gesture With Ball Girl, Ben Shelton Puts Together Comeback Win Over Jannik Sinner To Reach First ATP Masters Quarterfinal

Ben Shelton's impressive 2023 just keeps getting better and better. Not only is the young American quickly becoming one of the few must-watch players in professional tennis, he's becoming more likable along the way.

The tennis world got an appetizer, if you will, of Shelton when the former Florida Gator made the quarterfinal of the Australian Open in what was just his second Grand Slam appearance. Shelton's official coming out party came a few months later in New York when he made the semifinal of the U.S. Open only to fall to Novak Djokovic in straight sets.

Those two feats alone make for quite a solid year for a 21-year-old who only turned pro just 14 months ago, but he's gone on to check off yet another box at this week's ATP Shanghai Masters and gained even more fans along the way.

Ben Shelton is the new American tennis star. (Photo by COREY SIPKIN / AFP) (Photo by COREY SIPKIN/AFP via Getty Images)

Playing doubles alongside Hubert Hurkacs in the duo's Round of 32 match on Monday against Rinky Hijikata and Cam Norrie, rain interrupted play. As per usual, the ballly boys, in this case ball girls, quickly ran to the player benches and covered them with umbrellas.

Shelton, realizing how both odd and rude it was that he was being covered from the rain while the ball girl was getting drenched, told her to come around and sit next to him as he held the umbrella over the two of them.

On the one hand, it's no big deal as any gentlemen would at the very least share his umbrella. On the other hand, we're living in 2023 and gestures like this, especially in the world of professional sports, seem few and far between.

While Shelton and Hurkacz ultimately dropped their doubles match on Monday, the tennis gods didn't forget about him on Tuesday when he took the court against World No. 4 Jannik Sinner.

Shelton looked a bit overwhelmed in his first set against the Italian, losing 2-6, but was able to answer right back with a 6-3 win in the second frame setting up for an electric third set.

All that was on the line for Shelton was a win over the tournament's six-seed and nine-time winner in Sinner plus a berth into his first-ever ATP Masters quarterfinal.

As most would have predicted, the third set went into a tiebreak and Shelton was able to get the job done.

The year of Ben Shelton continues, and now he has a date in the quarterfinals with fellow American Sebastian Korda.

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