No. 10 seed Ben Shelton became the second American male to advance to the 2025 Wimbledon quarterfinals, beating Lorenzo Sonego in 4 sets 3-6, 6-1, 7-6, 7-5. Shelton reached the quarterfinals of the tournament for the first time in his career.
So, Shelton’s sister, Emma, will be staying in the UK until at least Wednesday, taking a break from work at Morgan Stanley. Emma was due to return to work in the US on Monday. However, she got the remaining weeks after Ben publicly demanded that his “lucky charm” be kept with his brothers following his third victory over Merton Fuccovis on Saturday.
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Shelton will face the winner between No. 1 seed Janik Sinner and No. 19 Gregor Dimitrov.
Monday’s match was Shelton’s third time defeating Sonego in a Grand Slam tournament, previously beat him at the Australian Open and French Open.
Sonego irritated Shelton early by dealing with his serve and preventing him from getting an ace. More importantly, the Italians continued to guess their opponents throughout the first set, mixing up different shots to keep Shelton away from the rhythm. Sonego appeared to be using everything from Arsenal to keep Shelton running.
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Additionally, Sonego controlled the play with his serve. This appears to have forced Shelton to spend extra time getting the set before receiving it. At one point, the judge warned him about the tactic. However, Shelton insisted that it took more than 25 seconds for Sonego to serve. This was a problem in the fourth round match between Cameron Norley and Nicolas Jarry on Sunday.
“According to the Daily Express, Shelton never starts no matter what starts before it becomes a 3, 2, 1.”
As it seemed rattled and lost focus, Shelton lost the first set quite decisively.
Sonego still had the answer to Shelton’s serve, but that changed in the second set. The set changed when Shelton defeated the serve and won the fourth game with Sonego’s double fault. Whether intentional or not, Sonego continued to try and throw away Shelton’s rhythm with longer serve times and bathroom breaks.
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By that point, Shelton led to the frustration he might have felt with his play and quickly won the second set, 6-1.
Both players went back and forth in the third set, but neither had any advantages in serve. Sonego fell violently behind the baseline, stretching as he returned, and Shelton went 4-3. However, at the next point, a serieser play occurred at the end of Shelton, and Sonego evenly made it.
The third set went to the tiebreaker when Sonego was
