Ben Shelton received his maiden tour title, beating Aslan Karatsev 7-5, 6-1 on the Japan Open on Sunday.
The 21-year-old American, who made his first tour semifinal look on the U.S. Open final month, continued his current wealthy vein of type in Tokyo, making 18 winners and dominating his Russian opponent together with his swinging lefty function he closed out the ultimate in 84 minutes.
“That meant so much to me and my staff,” Shelton mentioned. “We now have been working actually exhausting for the reason that starting to construct my recreation and win titles on the ATP tour. I made some deep runs these days. You see the nice champions, they end weeks off.
“They win titles, they do not simply get to finals. They’re able to keep their degree all through the week. I’m not saying I’m wherever there but, however to have the ability to do it for one week, put collectively 5 matches in a row in Tokyo is basically particular.”
Shelton will rise to a career-high No. 15 within the ATP’s rankings on Monday, having began the season at No. 96.
Throughout his breakout season, the American superior to the quarterfinals on the Australian Open, earlier than changing into the youngest American man to advance to the semifinals at Flushing Meadows since Michael Chang in 1992. He additionally made the quarterfinals on the Shanghai Masters final week.
The 30-year-old Karatsev was in search of his fourth title and first since he beat Andy Murray in Sydney in 2022, however with 20 unforced errors the Russian struggled to get any momentum within the match and problem Shelton.
