Ben Shelton before starting his first round at Roland-Garros
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« Le tennis, partout & toujours ici », sur
https://www.tennisactu.net / Tennis Actu
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00:00BNP Paribas, partenaire des plus belles histoires de Roland Garros, aux côtés des ramasseurs de balles depuis plus de 50 ans.
00:30Every week on clay is different conditions, different court, and yeah, it's kind of the surface that you have to make the most adaptations and adjustments.
00:46Hey Ben, just on the serve as well, I think was it last year you were talking to some of the other American guys about like what is a serve bot, what kind of qualifies for that.
00:55I just wonder what you think of that term, I suppose, and whether it's maybe disrespectful or kind of if it was something you wanted to avoid.
01:04No, I mean, I think it's, I don't think it's disrespectful, I think it just, you know, is what it is.
01:11It's funny, I think the guys who are, you know, serve bots kind of embrace it.
01:16I don't view myself as a serve bot, honestly, but I think that there's certain matches where I do do serve bot things.
01:26And yeah, I think it's kind of, you know, a funny joke that we made, or players who are viewed as serve bots made about themselves.
01:34What is, do you have a threshold in your mind? Do you think there is a kind of a point of a break?
01:39Sorry, I'm sorry. Thank you.
01:42Yeah, do you have a kind of threshold in your mind of what makes a player one?
01:46Like, is it about, I think it was like percentage of return games or something?
01:49Yeah, I mean, that's what John and Riley always say, who both consider themselves serve bots.
01:54That it was like if you're under, your break percentage is under 5% or something like that, then you're considered a bot.
02:01So, or somewhere around there. I don't remember exactly what we were talking about last summer, but yeah, I'd say that that's probably whatever they say is accurate.
02:11You made a semi-final in Open Australia early in the year. Do you have specific goals, specific expectations for Roland-Garros, monsieur?
02:20Not specific goals or expectations. I always want to do better than I did the year before in a tournament.
02:28And so, for me, I'm trying to go further here than I did last year.
02:33And this is a tournament that I love playing.
02:39I think that from year one to year two, I improved a lot.
02:43I got a lot better and feeling a lot more comfortable in year three.
02:47So, yeah, I'm really excited to hopefully go deep.
02:50And the Slams is where I play my best tennis.
02:52Yes, you're young and maybe you are concerned with the environmental problems, environmental problems.
03:01Do you think the players are doing enough to reduce their footprint, you know, in the year?
03:09And what do you do, you, if you?
03:11Yeah, every year I offset my carbon emissions.
03:15I don't know how many, you know, players do that, but they have a program through the ATP that you can do that.
03:22And that's something that I've been a part of the two years that I've been on tour.
03:26I think it's something that's, you know, pretty easy to do.
03:31And, yeah, for the most part, it's difficult in being a professional tennis player.
03:36You take a lot of flights, you do a lot of traveling, I guess you'd say a big footprint.
03:42But, yeah, I'm not the most well-versed in the environment and all the impacts of emissions and everything like that.
03:52But, you know, when the opportunity presents itself, I try to do my part.
03:59Last year, heading into the clay season, or I guess even before that, you did a lot of work with Gabe.
04:07In terms of trying to improve your movement and learn the movements, things like that.
04:11Did you do things?
04:12I know he's not with you guys anymore.
04:14Did you do sort of similar work heading into this year?
04:18And how has that part of your game, do you think, progressed?
04:22Yeah.
04:24Always do the similar work in my kind of clay block before I come over to Europe.
04:31And I think it's huge.
04:32I think that, you know, no matter the surface, whoever's moving the best is going to be playing the best.
04:39And I think that that's one of the things for me that's improved a lot is my movement on the surface.
04:45So there's still things that I need to get better.
04:48I'm not a complete clay court player yet.
04:51I'm not a finished product on the clay.
04:53There's still things that, you know, we talk about that need to improve for me to, you know, be playing at the top
05:04and giving myself opportunities to win tournaments, even though I am, you know, making some deep runs in clay court events now.
05:11I have a title on clay.
05:12And I think that there's just, you know, a lot of things that I'm continually trying to improve and work on.
05:23Is there a new game?
05:25Is there someone else whose focus is that?
05:28I mean, I know Lang works with your strength and conditioning.
05:31Yeah, no, not yet.
05:32Not right now.
05:32I think that it's maybe something that I'll add back in at some point.
05:39But I think that that's kind of like an area that is kind of strength and conditioning, but also kind of tennis.
05:45So your tennis coach should be able to, you know, put you through similar drills and movements.
05:51And, yeah, so that's kind of just been something that we've done.
05:55And then you could say by ourselves.
05:58But once you learn how to do things or what works for you, it's pretty easy to replicate it.
06:12Hi, Ben.
06:13Are you – when you're in this part of the season, are you looking ahead to getting on grass?
06:20Or do you not think at all about what's next?
06:24No, try to stay in the moment.
06:27You know, I think about every time I'm at the slam or a slam, it's, you know, my best opportunity, my favorite –
06:39one of my four favorite tournaments to play, my favorite format.
06:43And, you know, it's kind of like the moments that I live for.
06:48I love playing at the biggest events.
06:49I love playing at the slams.
06:50They always have the best crowds, the most energetic crowds.
06:54The best atmospheres.
06:56And so, for me, I'm not looking for it at all.
07:00You just kind of have to put the mindset.
07:02No matter what tournament it is, being a grand slam, no matter how I rank the four,
07:11they're still the four biggest and most important tournaments in the world.
07:15And I think that this is a tournament that Americans haven't had huge success in, 26 years since the finalists, something like that.
07:25Yeah.
07:25So, I think that this is a really cool opportunity for Americans.
07:31You do something big in an event like this, it really means something.
07:35So, this is a challenge, not my natural surface that I grew up playing on, but a surface that I want to become great on
07:44and certainly a tournament that I want to, you know, do really well and have deep runs, you know,
07:50if it's not this year and the following years and, yeah, make something special happen.
07:56Do you remember the first time you even hit on or practiced on red clay?
08:03Yeah.
08:05I mean, at the USTA in Orlando, we have red clay, you know.
08:10We call it Italian red clay, I don't know.
08:14But over here, the first time playing on red clay was Estoril in 2023.
08:22Ended up getting food poisoning there, so great first memories.
08:25But I'd say that that's probably the first time, you know, over here being in an environment,
08:32playing on the clay and, you know, having the feel of European red clay.
08:36First time being on the grass when we're out of Denver?
08:40First time on grass was at – what do they call that practice site at Wimbledon in 2023.
08:50No, no, no.
08:52Where they play qualities?
08:53Yeah, yeah, Roehampton.
08:552023 before Queens, that was my first time.
08:58You never understood?
09:00No.
09:00I mean, I live in Florida, so grass is just dirt if you try to cut it that short.
09:07Just want to follow up because I haven't seen you since then.
09:09You had an odd doubles match in Monaco with some sort of afterward comments.
09:13I'm wondering if you guys ever talked about that and his injury withdrawal afterwards and stuff.
09:17It just seemed like a strange episode.
09:21Yeah, it was a strange episode for sure.
09:23I thought it was a normal tennis play.
09:26You know, I never play with malice or ill intentions in doubles.
09:31You know, the same match I got hit in the chest too, you know, popped in the chest.
09:35And I think it's a normal part of doubles.
09:39And, you know, that's what all the doubles players after the fact have come up to me and said in the locker room, you know, you hit a normal shot on a normal play.
09:48I'm not really sure what the issue was.
09:49So I haven't really thought about it in weeks now.
09:52But, yeah, yeah, it was interesting.
09:54Did you talk to him at all afterwards?
09:56No.
09:59Hey, Ben.
10:00I always enjoy your interactions with your box and your dad.
10:03And your dad, for me, it seems like he's more technical than most people.
10:07Like when you're on court and giving you advice, what do you want from your box, like in the middle of a match when you're, I guess, trying to play clear-headed and play your best tennis?
10:16Yeah, it depends.
10:17I want energy for sure.
10:19If things are going great, you know, energy is good.
10:22Corrections are good.
10:23It's interesting because, you know, not many coaches out here have been with their players as long as my dad's been with me.
10:32And he's been really the only coach that I've ever, like, worked with and said is, you know, my coach.
10:39He probably has watched every match I've played for the last six years.
10:45And, you know, every match that's videoed that I've ever played.
10:50So, yeah, I can take a lot from him because I know that he understands me and my game very well.
10:57And, yeah, I think it just depends on where I'm at energy-wise, where my game's at.
11:02And I think my box does a really good job of kind of reading that, getting engaged to where I'm at and, you know, helping me the best way they can.
11:12So, yeah, thank you.
11:13Do you agree with that technical advice in front?
11:18Technical? You mean, like, strategic?
11:20Yeah.
11:20Yeah, I mean, I guess technical and strategic.
11:23It just depends.
11:27Sometimes I don't need it, but sometimes if things are going wrong or I'm getting beat in a certain pattern that I need to get out of
11:34or I'm missing a certain shot the same type of way and I need to make a small adjustment,
11:39whether it's footwork or weight transfer, body control, whatever it may be, the toss on my serve,
11:47then it's something that I'm not afraid to hear and, you know, make a small correction, but time and place, obviously.
11:55Thanks.