Ben Shelton blows Wimbledon opportunity in ‘one of the toughest losses of my career’

Ben Shelton described his Wimbledon first-round defeat to Finnish qualifier Otto Virtanen as “one of the toughest losses” of his career.

The fourth seed became the biggest casualty of the first round as he lost a fifth-set tiebreak to the world No 140, losing 6-4, 3-6, 6-7(8), 6-2, 7-6 (11-9) after more than four hours on the court.

The 23-year-old Shelton arrived at Wimbledon ranked at a career-high fifth in the world after winning the title at the Wimbledon warm-up event at Stuttgart. He was viewed as one of the contenders for the title, or at least tipped to reach his first grand slam final after landing on the opposite side of the draw as world No 1 Jannik Sinner, who beat him in last year’s quarter-finals, and 24-time grand slam winner Novak Djokovic.

“This is definitely one of the toughest losses of my career, coming here at Wimbledon,” Shelton said. “First time I’ve lost in the first round here.

“I came in playing really good tennis. I didn’t even think I played a poor match today. Things just didn’t go my way. But I’m going to treat this as any other tournament that finishes, and I’ll be right back on the practice courts in a couple days.”

Shelton, a former US Open semi-finalist, had never suffered defeat at a grand slam to a player ranked as low as the No 140 Virtanen, but he praised his opponent for playing an “outstanding match”.

“I feel like it was an uphill battle all day today,” the American said. “I was pretty off on my serve spot, so I wasn’t getting many free points. I was having to grind through a lot of the games. The guy was playing really good and downhill from the baseline.

“Obviously in the second, I was able to get an early break and tough out the third. I think I had 15-40 three separate times in the fifth set. The guy came up with some ridiculous stuff in those moments, really good tennis.”

Shelton said he does not look at draws beyond his first-round opponent but would have been aware that he couldn’t have faced Sinner or Djokovic until the final because they are playing their matches on different days, but he denied that a played a part in his defeat.

“I’m not a dumb ass,” he said. “I have no clue really in terms of specifics. It’s not something that I look at. I’m not looking at social media. I’m not looking at my path at all. It’s just kind of focusing on the first round obviously.

“If you’re not playing the same day as the guy, you probably know he’s not in your half of the draw. Past that I’m usually pretty locked in at these tournaments.

“Who I’m playing opening match, as you can see here, anybody can come out and win on any particular day. The guy played a great match today and that’s what happened.”

Qualifier Virtanen, who reached two Challenger finals on grass prior to Wimbledon but had won just two tour-level matches this year, will play British wildcard Arthur Fery in the second round.