ATP Tour

Shelton holds nerve to dethrone Fritz in Stuttgart

Ben Shelton took the most scenic route possible to his first grass-court title at the BOSS OPEN, where the big-serving lefty on Sunday downed his fellow American Taylor Fritz to lift the trophy.

Having won his opening three matches in Stuttgart in deciding sets, Shelton completed the set in the championship match with a 6-4, 2-6, 6-4 triumph against 2025 titlist Fritz. Shelton recovered superbly from a difficult second set to claim a one-hour, 48-minute victory.

“It means a lot to me," Shelton said in his on-court interview. "Certainly a difficult week, not an easy week to get through. I’m pretty exhausted, but to play the way I did against the quality of opponents I played in very tight matches and getting a win today against one of the best grass-court players in the world is a huge boost for my confidence. I’m just happy to get my first title here in Stuttgart.”

Having already won ATP Tour titles this year on the hard courts of Dallas (where he also defeated Fritz in the final) and on the Munich clay, Shelton is the first American to lift trophies on hard, clay and grass in the same season since Sam Querrey in 2010. The only other player to have won three tour-level crowns in 2026 is the No. 1 player in the PIF ATP Rankings Jannik Sinner, who has five.

Against Fritz, Shelton crucially saved all five break points he faced in the opening set and both the break points he faced in the third set, according to Infosys ATP Stats. The 23-year-old, who rallied from a set down against each of Marcos Giron, Sho Shimabukuro and Jiri Lehecka to reach the final, converted his first match point to improve to 3-1 in his Lexus ATP Head2Head series with Fritz.

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“A lot of stress. I didn’t make things easy on myself, but every guy that I played I thought played really well and made things really difficult,” Shelton said. “Taylor for a period of the match today was completely unplayable. So I’ve got to give a lot of credit to the guys I played. But for me, being tough and getting through the tough matches, day in and day out, is the first step to getting to where I want to be and being in the groove that I want to be in this grass-court season.”

Shelton will stay in Germany for now and head to Halle, where he will next week compete as the second seed at the Terra Wortmann Open. The American has been handed a tricky opening assignment on his debut at the ATP 500: a first-round meeting with former Wimbledon finalist Nick Kyrgios.