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The stadium opened with Ben Shelton taking care of business in straight sets in his first-round match before Coco Gauff followed by doing exactly the same in hers.
Star Spangled Ashe on Monday afternoon.
“Yeah, I think it’s really cool,” Shelton said after disposing Dominic Thiem, 6-4, 6-2, 6-2 in dominant fashion. “Obviously it wasn’t just me. I was playing against a former champion who’s ended up [playing] his last match here at the [U.S.] Open.”
Thiem, the 30-year-old Austrian who captured the COVID-impacted 2020 Open without fans permitted in the facility, is retiring at the end of the year. He has had an honorable career, once attaining status as the third-ranked player in the world.
But let’s be serious. Thiem may as well have been a generic opponent in this one. Shelton, the 21-year-old whose run to the semis electrified Queens a year ago before Novak Djokovic ended his cell service, was the main attraction.
“But I think it’s really special obviously for Coco,” Shelton said, smiling. “It is for Coco.”
Gauff was the star of the show last year, when at age 19 she became the youngest women’s singles champion since Serena Williams won it as a 17-year-old. Nothing has changed. At age 20, she is the name on the marquee above the title.
And so she was asked whether indeed it was very cool to open Ashe with Shelton, whose answer was referenced in the query.
“Not really,” Gauff said, playfully. “He’s the one who opened. I followed him.”
“No, any time I get the opportunity to play on Ashe is a cool experience,” she said, becoming serious. “I remember, I think two years ago I got, like, my first win on the court.
“You know, I remember the first time I played on this court, I think it was against Naomi [Osaka] on a night session [in 2019], and, you know, just seeing how far I’ve come from that moment and it’s incredible to always play on this court, day or night.
“Obviously the night sessions are a little bit more nerve-wracking, I think,” she said. “But opening the court, two Americans, two young ones doing well, it means a lot.
“Yeah, I’m very honored.”
There has been no grand slam drought among American women. After Serena Williams captured her 23rd and final Slam at the 2017 Australian, Sloane Stephens won the Open that September and Sofia Kenin took the 2020 Australian before Gauff ascended last year.
The men, they’re a different story, going on 21 years since Andy Roddick won the 2003 Open. There hasn’t been an American man in a Slam final since Roddick went down in a 14-16 fifth set to Roger Federer at Wimbledon in 2009.
Shelton, the 13th seed, is one of five American men in the top 20. Taylor Fritz, No. 12, rolled over Camilo Ugo Carabelli in straight sets at Armstrong. Tommy Paul is seeded 14, Sebastian Korda, 16, and Frances Tiafoe, who went to the semis two years ago before losing a five-set classic to eventual champion Carlos Alcaraz, is No. 20.
They are presented as the Young Americans. But Paul is 27, not all that young. Tiafoe and Fritz are 26, not all that young. Korda is 24, kind of young.
The No. 1 player in the world, Jannik Sinner? He is 23. Alcaraz? He is 21.
They are young.
So is Shelton, who has about a half of a decade on his contemporaries. He put on a show of force on Monday, facing (and denying) only one break point in the match in which he won 24 of 28 points at the net, got 74 percent of his first serves in and won 91 percent of his first serve points.
“I thought it was a good start. There wasn’t really a category that I was unhappy with,” he said. “I thought I served extremely well today, did a good job dictating play with my forehand, the best I hit my forehand for a while.”
Shelton advanced to the third round in both Australia and Roland Garros before reaching the fourth round at Wimbledon. He won his second career title on the tour by defeating Tiafoe on clay in Houston in April. The dash to last year’s semis established a platform, but the engaging and charismatic lefty is not looking back.
“I haven’t been really feeling butterflies lately when I walk on the court,” he said. “I think after last year, the stage doesn’t get much bigger than that.”
There are no small stages at the Open, only players who might come up small. If Shelton is scheduled on an outer court as he traverses the draw to a hypothetical fourth-round matchup against Djokovic, the Atlanta native won’t be big-timing anyone.
“[It’s] kind of a dream come true being in this situation again here this year, but I don’t mind playing on any of the courts here at the US Open,” he said. “You know, you start me on Court 10 or 12 or 16, I’m going to go out there and battle.
“I think it’s going to be a great atmosphere, no matter what.”
