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Shelton takes on Merida Aguilar in Roland Garros opener
Ben Shelton begins his fourth appearance at Roland Garros on Monday. The American will face 21-year-old Spaniard Daniel Merida Aguilar, a player he hasn’t previously met on the ATP Tour.
Shelton’s best result at the French Open came last year when he reached the fourth round before losing to Carlos Alcaraz, who went on to win the tournament.
While Shelton picked up his first clay-court title at ATP 500 level or above by winning the Munich Open earlier this year, he has since had difficulty performing at major events on the surface.
In preparation for his opening match, Shelton hit the practice courts with British number one Cameron Norrie, where they played what was described as a ‘crazy’ match.
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Cameron Norrie remembers a practice match with Ben Shelton in Paris
“Not too often,” Norrie replied when asked about how often he plays five-set practice matches before tournaments. “Every time I plan to do that, something’s happened where one guy’s not being able to do it or something happened.”
He then went on to talk more about the session: “It was kind of strange because we started at 2pm, and, like, no one was watching and it was pretty serious practice, and every time after the set, we swept the court, we watered it, and then we went again.
“Yeah, I luckily ended up winning the practice in the fifth. He served for the match in the fourth.
“Yeah, it was a crazy match, but I felt it was, I told him was one of my favourite practises of all time. But it was good fun, good preparation, and good to test the focus, you know, for close to five hours was crazy and he said it was the longest match he’s ever played, so not sure we can count it too much, but it was amazing from him.
Looking back on it afterwards, Norrie did have some slight regrets:
“I think yeah it was — in hindsight maybe not the best for Geneva and for him for Hamburg but um yeah but uh good level.”
Looking back at Cameron Norrie’s run in Paris last year
Norrie, like Shelton, also reached the fourth round for the first time at Roland Garros last year.
He opened his campaign with a gruelling five-set win over Daniil Medvedev, who has been vulnerable early in Grand Slams recently.
The Brit then followed that up with straight-set victories against Federico Agustin Gomez and fellow Brit Jacob Fearnley.
However, his run came to an end against Novak Djokovic, losing 6-2, 6-3, 6-2. This year’s opener sees Norrie face Adolfo Daniel Vallejo as he looks to make another deep run in Paris.
Read more:
- Career on the line: How Alexander Zverev’s shocking withdrawal might ignite a Grand Slam run
- Frances Tiafoe breaks silence: Is American men’s tennis doomed before Roland Garros?
- Daniil Medvedev isn’t worried about Carlos Alcaraz being out of Roland Garros; The reason will surprise you
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