Ben Shelton almost fell in the semifinals of the ATP Tokyo event on Saturday. The American was losing to fellow American, Marcos Giron. However, Shelton staged a comeback from down a set and two breaks in the second set. Giron missed his chance to advance to the final. It will instead be Shelton who will face either Aslan Karatsev or upstart Shintaro Mochizuki. At the time of writing, those two players still had to contest their semifinal match.
What’s next for Ben Shelton after the Tokyo final?
Looking ahead, Shelton is on the player’s list for next week’s ATP Vienna (2023 Erste Bank Open). The main draw of the event runs from October 23rd to October 29th. Qualifying matches are already being played with the main draw to be released this weekend.
Vienna is part of the 500-series on tour, just like the ATP Tokyo event. However, Tokyo was a little soft for attracting the top talent this season. Vienna has a pretty loaded players list. In addition to Shelton, all of Frances Tiafoe, Alexander Zverev, Andrey Rublev, Jannik Sinner, Stefanos Tsitsipas, and Daniil Medvedev are slated to play in the tournament. They will surely crowd the quarterfinal round and make it very hard for an underdog to plow through to the final. The title in Vienna promises to be a very difficult one to get.
Home-country tennis hero, Dominic Thiem, is also expected to contest the draw. He is not among the upper echelon of the tennis rankings these days but may work himself back to good form in the months ahead.
Stay Tuned for Updates: Ben Shelton Results
We will have a preview for the Tokyo final on Saturday afternoon.
Among the high-ranked entrants, in Vienna Shelton and Tsitsipas are the ones that have been active in recent days. Shelton played four matches in Tokyo already and will contest a 5th. Meanwhile, Tsitsipas, at the time of writing, is alive in the 2023 ATP Antwerp draw and may yet make the final. There is a chance that one or both of these players will be dealing with fatigue as they change venues.
ATP Vienna 2023 Preview
Sinner and Medvedev are the biggest threats for the Vienna title. They faced one another not too long ago in a 500-series tournament from ATP Beijing, a tournament that Sinner won. He and Medvedev were in the Shanghai Masters draw in the week that followed but they suffered early exits. They should each be very well rested for what promises to be an entertaining event in Austria in the upcoming days. Ahead of the odds and draw, I’m going with a Medvedev and Sinner to meet in the tournament’s final (betting odds pending at the time of writing).
