- Ben Shelton won the BOSS OPEN in Stuttgart to claim his first ATP Tour title on grass and his sixth overall ATP title.
- Shelton is the first American since 2010 to win titles on hard, clay, and grass courts and will compete at Wimbledon 2026 from June 29 to July 12.
Ben Shelton has added another first.
On Sunday, the Buchholz/UF alum defeated fellow American Taylor Fritz in three sets to win the BOSS OPEN in Stuttgart, Germany.
It marked the sixth ATP Tour title for the Gainesville tennis player, but it was his first career title on a grass court.
The former Gator, who won an NCAA singles title for UF in 2022 before turning professional, won the first set, 6-4, but the reigning champion evened the match.
Fritz dominated the second set, 6-2, by winning a higher percentage of second serve points (6/6 vs. 2/10).
After losing the second set, Shelton won the third set, 6-4, with a lot of first serve points (17/22).
“I came out at a really high level and have done that before against him,” Shelton said in his on-court interview. “The toughest thing is maintaining it as he raises his level. I managed to do that in the second set and played some great tennis. I am happy with my performance this week. I got better and better as the week went on and I am happy with the work me and the team put in.”
Shelton, the world’s No. 5 player overall, became the first American since Sam Querrey in 2010 to claim a title on all three court types (hard, clay and grass) and he is the only player, besides No. 1 Jannik Sinner, to hold three or more titles in 2026.
In April, Shelton won his second title on clay with a 6-2, 7-5 victory against Italy’s Flavio Cobolli at the BMW Open by Bitpanda in Munich.
He is the first American to win three ATP 500 crowns (since 2009) and he became the first American to win a title on clay above the ATP 250 level since Andre Agassi in Rome in 2002.
Later this month, Shelton will try and become the first American to win Wimbledon since Pete Sampras in 2000. Andy Roddick was the most recent American to win a Grand Slam title when he captured the 2003 US Open.
The 2026 Wimbledon Championships will take place from Monday, June 29, to Sunday, July 12.
Last year, Shelton fell in straight sets to Sinner in the Wimbledon quarterfinals.
Shelton, who won a Class 4A state title as a junior at Buchholz in 2019, has been steadily climbing the rankings.
He began the summer of 2022 ranked No. 547 in the world.
In September 2023, the Buchholz grad became the youngest American man in three decades to advance to the U.S. Open semifinals.
One month later, he shot up to No. 15 in the world rankings and last June moved to a top 10 ranking.
When he made his top-five debut this past November, he became just the third lefty to be ranked in the ATP Top 5 this century.
Shelton, who is among my top 10 of the greatest Alachua County athletes of all time, is back on the court on Tuesday, June 16, at 5:30 a.m. EDT against Nick Kyrgios at the Terra Wortmann Open, an ATP 500 grass-court tournament.