SHANGHAI — Third seed Ben Shelton has suffered a shock third-round exit at the Shanghai Masters after falling 6-7(5-7), 6-7(3-7) to France's Arthur Gea. The ATP number four had opened his campaign at the ATP Masters 1000 event with a 6-3, 7-6(8-6) victory over Daniel Altmaier, but failed to build on that momentum as Gea claimed victory in their first career meeting — his first-ever match against a top-10 opponent.
Shelton was candid in defeat, admitting his preparation had left him short and that jet lag had taken its toll. “Yeah, I mean, I got outplayed today. The guy played better than me. A hundred percent, I would have liked to have come over here earlier and be prepared and have already dealt with the jet lag by the time I was playing here in the Shanghai Masters. My body wasn’t ready. I wasn’t physically ready to play in Tokyo. That’s just the way this tour is sometimes,” he told the media when asked whether playing only Davis Cup since the US Open had impacted his result.
The American was generous in his praise for the 21-year-old Frenchman, who handled his serve with assurance throughout. “I thought he handled my serve outstanding. I thought he did a great job on return today start to finish. He put it a lot in play. He was putting them deep to the baseline. It was tough to attack. There was hardly any, as the match went on, points where I was getting easy free points or first balls to attack and come to the net on, so a lot of credit to him,” Shelton said. Asked if he was surprised by Gea’s frequent forays to the net, he added: “No, no, I have watched some of him playing. He’s a very talented player. I thought he played an outstanding, complete match today. He’s got a huge forehand and big game and, yeah, I think that he’ll do very well on the tour.”
Gea, currently ranked 56th in the world — a career-high — has enjoyed a breakthrough run in Shanghai, having also beaten Jaime Faria and Ugo Humbert to reach the third round, and will now face the winner of Francisco Cerundolo and Jakub Mensik after claiming his maiden ATP title earlier this year at Los Cabos. Shelton, who also lost his doubles opener alongside Alexander Bublik, is already looking ahead to the ATP Finals in Turin next month, where he sits fourth in the Race to Turin. “I want to finish on a high note in Turin. Obviously I want to be prepared, playing some of my best tennis when I get there. Three tournaments left to finish the year, which has been a very up-and-down year, but a great year, on a high note,” he said.