Ben Shelton’s excellent serving was on full display at the Dallas Open.
The 22-year-old has played his first match since reaching the Australian Open semi-finals and he produced one of his best results of the season.
The American took on Aleksandar Vukic, who had the best Grand Slam run of his career by reaching the third round at Melbourne Park.
But the Australian was no match for the World number 13, as Ben Shelton took just 63 minutes to record a 6-3, 6-3 victory.
At the cornerstone of Shelton’s impressive performance at the Dallas Open was his serve, his biggest weapon.
The two-time Grand Slam semi-finalist won 90 per cent of his first-serve points and he did not face a break point throughout the contest.
At one point he delivered a serve that registered on the speed gun at 153 mph, which would be his fastest ever serve and the fifth fastest of all time.
Shelton was asked about this during a post-match interview on Tennis Channel, but he refused to believe he had broken his serve speed record, and claimed there was an issue with the technology used.
“It’s not accurate,” Shelton said. “Hate to say it but some serves I was hitting were coming at 59mph, some were 153. I think all of them were somewhere in the middle!”
In Dallas Shelton played against Vukic for the first time on the ATP Tour.
They played one another on the Challenger tour in 2022, where Shelton had to come from a set down to claim victory.
That was not the case in Dallas, as Shelton secured a comfortable victory, and he was happy he could neutralise the Australian’s weapons.
“[He] obviously is a guy who’s a great server. Actually, I beat him in my match to make the Top 100 and he bagelled me in the first set that match. So not an easy matchup for me,” Shelton said.
“To break him three times tonight is something I take a lot of confidence from and moving forward into the rest of the tournament, feeling really confident.”
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