MEXICO CITY:
American fourth seed Ben Shelton battled from a set down to clinch his first ATP Masters 1000 title at the Canadian Open in Toronto on Thursday, defeating Russian 11th seed Karen Khachanov 6-7(5) 6-4 7-6(3).
The world number seven capped off an impressive week that saw him beat Italian 13th seed Flavio Cobolli, Australian ninth seed Alex de Minaur and American second seed Taylor Fritz on his way to achieving his first Masters 1000 title and the biggest crown of his career.
The 22-year-old is the youngest American man to win a Masters 1000 since former world number one Andy Roddick at Miami in 2004.
His other two titles came in Tokyo in 2023 and Houston in 2024. “It’s a surreal feeling,” Shelton said. “It’s been a long week, not an easy path to the final. My best tennis came out when it mattered most. I was clutch, I persevered, I was resilient. All the qualities I like to see in myself.”
With the triumph, Australian Open semi-finalist Shelton will rise to a career-high ranking of sixth. Khachanov seemed to be on course for victory when he took a 5-3 lead in the opening set, but Shelton fought back to break serve and take a 6-5 lead.
Khachanov, 29, then recovered to force a tiebreak and capitalised on a series of errors from Shelton to claim the first set.
The second set brought its own twist, when technical issues halted play at 2-2 with players unable to hear audio calls from the electronic line-calling system.
Once play resumed and after Shelton complained, Khachanov surged to a 4-3 lead. However, the resilient Shelton broke again to edge ahead 5-4 and saved four break points to clinch the second set, forcing a decider, which ended in a tiebreak dominated by Shelton.
Shelton banged down 16 aces and struck 38 winners in the contest that lasted for two hours and 47 minutes.
“Karen was bullying me around the court. The way he hit his forehand tonight, the way he was cutting off the court, the way he was serving, it felt like I had a freight train coming at me,” Shelton said.