ATP Tour

Shelton digs deep to oust home hope Van Assche, reach Paris final

Ben Shelton shook off a difficult start and a third-set deficit to earn a tense semi-final victory on Saturday afternoon at the Rolex Paris Masters.

The third-seeded American clawed past home favourite Luca Van Assche 5-7, 6-3, 6-4 at the indoor hard-court event to set a championship-match showdown with Carlos Alcaraz or Casper Ruud. Having delivered a sloppy first-set display to help World No. 47 Van Assche to within a set of a dream final on home soil, Shelton increased his level to take the second set and then dug deep from 1-3 in the decider to reach his third ATP Masters 1000 final.

“I thought Luca was playing great,” Shelton said. “He was really consistent and really good on the move, and I started forcing my shots. I made a significant amount of forehand unforced errors in the first set and really my goal after that was to cut out those unforced errors, to be a little bit more solid, and to use the speed of the court to my advantage instead of fighting it.

“I really found a great rhythm. I started to return better, was getting into more of his service games, and I got better and better as the match went on.”

With his two-hour, 16-minute victory, Shelton advanced to his sixth tour-level final of the season, the joint-most on Tour alongside Jannik Sinner. He is the first American to appear in six championship matches in one season since James Blake reached eight in 2006, while he is the first American finalist at the Rolex Paris Masters since 2017 champion Jack Sock.

Awaiting the 24-year-old lefty Shelton in Sunday’s title match in Paris will be second seed Alcaraz or former World No. 2 Ruud. Shelton, who is fourth in the PIF ATP Live Race To Turin and has qualified for the season-ending Nitto ATP Finals, is looking to add a third Masters 1000 crown to his previous triumphs in Toronto (2025) and Montreal (2026).

More to follow…