Ben Shelton is on fire in Melbourne! He has now advanced to the SF of the AO for the very first time in his career. The 22-year-old American defeated Italy’s Lorenzo Sonego by 6-4,7-5,4-6,7-6(4). Both these players managed to keep the fans on the edge of their seats at the Rod Laver Arena in this epic 3-hour and 50-minute battle. Interestingly, this was Shelton’s debut at this iconic stadium, and speaking on that after the match, the American said, “Last year, I didn’t hit a single ball on Rod Laver.” He’ll next face Jannik Sinner in the SF at the same venue. We’ll see how he gets things going in that epic battle, but before that let’s take a look at Emma Shelton’s reaction to Ben’s QF triumph.

With this win, Ben Shelton has now joined Rafael Nadal in an elite group. His latest win means that since 1988, he has become just the second left-handed player since Rafael Nadal to reach the SF of both hard-court major tournaments (Ben Shelton reached the SF of the US Open in 2023). Just like every other American tennis fan, even Shelton’s sister, Emma has been cheering for him in this mega event. When Ben Shelton advanced to the QF, we saw her elder sister and a well-known college tennis player sharing three posts on her IG Stories. 

All these posts captured glimpses of his brother’s winning moment with the final one showing Bryan Shelton giving a hug to the 38-year-old Gael Monfils who was forced to retire in that match. Interestingly, even after securing his spot in the semis, we saw Emma Shelton coming up with three posts on her IG stories. Here in the first one, she shared the scorecard of his match against Sonego. Then in the second one, we saw the winning moment and how Ben Shelton rushed in to hug his father, Bryan Shelton after the win. She captioned that post with, “🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺.” In the third one, she shared a milestone alert about Shelton’s maiden SF appearance at the AO.

However, this isn’t the moment where we have seen Emma Shelton showcasing her full support for her brother. Ben Shelton’s elder sister, Emma who is two years older than him is also a professional tennis player, She has won several accolades while playing for the ITA and SEC. So, she not only loves tennis but regularly follows the sport as well and talks about keeping her eyes on her brother’s performances, well we’ve seen him sharing multiple posts about the same in the past as well.

She was seen sharing a similar IG story while celebrating her brother’s historic victory at the US Men’s Claycourt Championships in Houston. Then, she was also seen showing her support for Ben Shelton when he clinched an impressive victory against Stan Wawrinka at the Swiss Indoors Basel. Perhaps now, Ben Shelton will be wishing to see her sister sharing a similar IG story after his match against Jannik Sinner on Friday. Does he have any chance against the world number one, though?

Tennis experts have some advice for Ben Shelton ahead of his match against Jannik Sinner

Ben Shelton has faced Jannik Sinner five times in his career and unfortunately for the American, the Italian had the last laugh in four out of those five matches. Shortly after their match at the 2024 Wimbledon Championships, we saw, Ben Shelton admitting with brutal honesty about how much he was impressed with Sinner’s performance in that match. He said, “I don’t understand how he manages to slide so well on the court without getting injured, I don’t know how he manages to play with such confidence, his tennis is excellent.” 

Then even before their meeting at the 2024 Shanghai Masters, Shelton was seen reflecting on how big an opportunity it is for him to play against someone like Jannik Sinner, who’s currently the world’s number one. He failed to deliver on both of those occasions. Can he deliver it in Melbourne, though? Well, for those who don’t know, Jannik Sinner has a 14-0 record against Americans in Grand Slam tournaments. So, it won’t be easy for Shelton.

However, according to Brad Gilbert, “I don’t believe he’s (Shelton) ever dropped more than 20 [aces in a match] and he has that capability. I think he needs to drop a 25 spot to be able to beat a Sinner. That’s the first number I will look at.” The former world number 4, James Blake believes Ben Shelton needs to use his variety too to seal the deal against someone like Sinner. According to Blake, “Hitting 144 [mph] every time, Sinner will eventually get on that. If he mixes in the slider, if Sinner backs up, he throws in the slider out wide, the kicker out wide to the deuce court and he throws everything at him, that’s the only way he can keep him off balance and hold serve.” We saw Taylor Fritz reaching the final in the previous major tournament. Can Shelton be the next American to do it?