ATP Tour

Shelton storms through R1 at US Open: 'This is the pinnacle of tennis for me'

Ben Shelton arrived at the US Open as a contender and did nothing to dispel that status Sunday inside Arthur Ashe Stadium.

The sixth seed made a perfect start to his tournament when he cruised past Peruvian qualifier Ignacio Buse 6-3, 6-2, 6-4 for a place in the second round. The big-serving lefty did not lose serve in his two-hour, seven-minute victory.

"It's starting to feel like home for me. This is the best court in tennis," Shelton said in his on-court interview. "It's my favourite place to play: favourite court, favourite tournament. So opening day, first match, there are always a little bit of nerves, but I'm really happy I came out here and you guys got to see me do my thing. I'm really appreciative of everyone who came out."

Shelton has proven capable of rising to the Grand Slam occasion, advancing to the quarter-finals or better in four of his 12 previous major appearances, including twice this year. Off the back of his maiden ATP Masters 1000 triumph in Toronto, will this be the event in which the 22-year-old makes his deepest major run yet?

"We take it one step at a time. I'm trying to get better every day," Shelton said. "I think that as soon as you start looking ahead of yourself, you stumble over your own feet. So for me, it's one match at a time, one day at a time and just grateful to be out here.

"I'm happy to come back here every year. This is the one for sure. This is the pinnacle of tennis for me, what I dreamed about when I was a kid."

Two years ago, he thrilled the New York crowd by making the semi-finals at the season’s final Slam and in Australia this year Shelton also made the last four. The No. 6 player in the PIF ATP Rankings will take it match by match, starting with his next encounter against a Spaniard: former Top 10 star Pablo Carreno Busta or Pablo Llamas Ruiz.

Shelton was familiar with his opening opponent, Buse, even if this was their first Lexus ATP Head2Head meeting. When Shelton played college tennis at the University of Florida, Buse visited the school as a highly coveted recruit. Although the Peruvian never attended college, the two have maintained great respect for one another.

Ahead of the match, Buse marveled at how quickly Shelton has climbed towards the top of the ATP Tour. The American very much looked the part of an elite player in front of his home crowd, rushing the net with great effect — winning 26 of 33 net points — to move on.

With Buse returning from well behind the baseline — often standing on the fringe of the camera shot — there was plenty of room for Shelton to control the match. The lefty even serve and volleyed 19 times, doing so successfully 14 times. Shelton converted four of his 13 break points while saving the five he faced.

American No. 1 Taylor Fritz also moved on in straight sets, but needed to overcome more hurdles in his victory. The fourth seed squeaked through a tight first set before surging past countryman Emilio Nava 7-5, 6-2, 6-3 in a Cincinnati Open rematch.

“I think I really just settled into the match a bit more. I had a game where I had some good chances in the first set and I just missed a couple of returns, just didn’t play as well as I could have in that moment,” Fritz said. “Against someone like Emilio with such a big serve, that might be the only chance I get.

“I was lucky to get another chance to break at the end of the first set and I think once I found that break, the return started working for me a bit more, loosened up and I did a good job holding my serve the whole match.”

This was Fritz's first US Open match since reaching the final in New York one year ago. The 27-year-old hit 11 aces and saved all four break points he faced against Nava.

In other early Day One action, 16th seed Jakub Mensik made a good start with a 7-6(5), 6-3, 6-4 victory against Nicolas Jarry, who reached the Wimbledon fourth round, and 18th seed Alejandro Davidovich Fokina ousted Alexander Shevchenko 6-1, 6-1, 6-2.