Ben Shelton beat Michael Mmoh 6-3 6-3 at the Dallas Open in his tournament debut to earn his sixth quarter final and his second on soil after his run at the 2023 US Open.
Shelton, who was playing his first match since his defeat against Adrian Mannarino at last January’s Australian Open, dropped just three points on serve and hit 23 winners to seal the win in 63 minutes. The US player win 12 of his 14 net points.
Shelton dropped just three points on his serve and earned an early break to open up a 3-0 lead. The US player served out the first set on his first set point.
Shelton won three consecutive points on Mmoh’s serve before breaking serve to take a 3-2 lead. Shelton broke again to take a 5-3 lead before closing out the match at love.
Shelton has now a 13-1 record against players outside top 50 players since the start of August.
“I was pretty surprised with the level I played at today. I felt comfortable out on the court playing and moving. I thought I played a really good match. I think the biggest thing for me is my movement. I think a year and a half ago I had two left feet. I could not move on the court. Probably there is a lot of people in the stands right now who were moving on the tennis court better than me, but I feel like that’s the part of my game that improved the most and I am moving at a pretty high level right now”, said Shelton.
James Duckworth upset Christopher Eubanks 7-6 (7-3) 6-4. Duckworth did not face a break point. Duckworth did not convert his only break point in the first set before winning the tie-break 7-3. The Australian player earned his decisive break in the ninth game and served out the win on his first match point.
Tommy Paul saved all four break points in his 6-3 6-2 win over Japan’s Taro Daniel.
Daniel fended off five break points at the start of the first set before Paul earned a break when Daniel ended a long rally on his serve with a forehand into the net.
Paul converted the fourth break point in each of Daniel’s first two service games in the second set. Paul earned his second break after a long rally on Daniel’s serve.
Daniel earned two break points in the fourth game in the fourth game, but Paul saved them to hold serve for a 4-0 lead. Paul won his next two service games and served out the win on his first match point.
Paul has improved his record to 13-1 in his opening matches since Wimbledon. He lost his only match against Medvedev in Beijing in that period.
Marcos Giron saved the only break point he faced and broke serve in the ninth game on his second match point to beat Max Purcell 6-4 6-3.
