In the early rounds of Roland Garros, the top players in the men’s rankings fall like dominoes. Ben Shelton joined him hours after world No. 1 Jannik Sinner suffered a stunning upset in the second round on Thursday.
Shelton, ranked fifth in the world and the top American, lost in straight sets to Rafael Collignon 6-4, 7-5, 6-4. Shelton played against the Belgian, but the young American made 27 unforced errors and allowed Collignon to come back in all three sets.
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After defeating Shelton, Collignon celebrated with the crowd, but then shed tears over the victory.
This is Collignon’s fourth Grand Slam, with the 24-year-old qualifying for his first major at Wimbledon last year. He will at least match his best finish of last year’s third-round finish at the U.S. Open.
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It was Shelton’s worst Grand Slam finish since 2023, but the American has never done so well at Roland Garros. Clay is not the best surface for Shelton. Instead, he thrived on hard courts, reaching the quarterfinals of the Australian Open in January and the semifinals the year before. But he will be hoping to bounce back from Wimbledon, where he reached the quarter-finals last year.
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Shelton joins a group of top-ranked male players who are being eliminated from the tournament, including Sinner, who lost to Juan Manuel Cerundro early Thursday, apparently succumbing to the heat, and No. 7 Taylor Fritz, who lost in four sets to unseeded American Nishesh Vasavareddy in the first round on Sunday.
Carlos Alcaraz is also out with a wrist injury, leaving an incredibly large window of opportunity for the field going forward, with players like Novak Djokovic hoping to take advantage of his significant absence in the later rounds.
