Madison Keys is on fire in Melbourne! She’s showing no signs of slowing down and guess what she recently staged a massive upset at the 2025 AO. Keys recently defeated the former finalist, Elena Rybakina in the fourth round in a three-set thriller. The Adelaide Open champion has now extended her winning streak to nine matches! However, despite her incredible performance against world number 7, it now seems as if her compatriot Ben Shelton has taken away all the limelight. Shelton’s weird gesture to celebrate Madison Keys’ incredible win has now become the talk of the town!

What did Shelton do, though? Well, the youngster perhaps couldn’t control his excitement after seeing the incredible fightback of his compatriot. Just a few hours ago, the Australian Open’s official IG page shared a small video with the caption, “hype king fr 👑.” In that video clip, Shelton was seen grabbing his crotch as soon as he saw Madison Keys entering the player’s tunnel on her way to the dressing room. Ben Shelton looked quite ecstatic seeing Keys and both of them even laughed at each other while giving out a low-five.

However, that moment of camaraderie between the two American stars raised quite a few eyebrows in the tennis world. Some of the fans were even seen mocking Ben Shelton for his weird gesture to celebrate Madison Keys’ win. What are the fans saying about that, though? Well, we’ll get to that, but before that, let’s check out Madison Keys’ reaction to her incredible victory against Elena Rybakina.

Madison Keys has now reached her 11th Grand Slam quarterfinal, and guess what? This was her third top-10 win of this season. Shortly after wrapping up the match at 6-3,1-6,6-3, Madison Keys talked a bit about her tactics in this match. She said, “Her serve is such a weapon, so I knew that if I could just try to make at least some of her service games a little bit competitive, then I had a chance. So I was basically just trying to make anything that I could get my racket on back over the net, which worked sometimes.“

Keys has previously reached the SF of the AO in the 2015 and 2022 seasons. She is now just one step away from making it to the SF yet again at this mega event. However, Elina Svitolina stands tall in her path to the semis! Can Madison Keys beat the Ukrainian superstar in the QF and create yet another exciting moment in her career? Time will tell, but talking about excitement, well let’s take a look at some of the fans’ reactions to Ben Shelton’s bizarre way of showcasing his excitement.

Tennis fans aren’t too pleased with Ben Shelton’s weird celebration of Madison Keys’ incredible win

Ben Shelton‘s celebrations often make the headlines and we’ve heard a lot of it even during the 2023 US Open. Remember Shelton’s ‘dialed-in’ celebration, which drew severe criticism from Novak Djokovic. Although the Serb was also spotted imitating the same celebration during his SF match at the 2023 US Open against Shelton, however, later on, he said he was not happy with Shelton’s on-court behavior.

Later on, during an interview with L’Equipe, Novak Djokovic shed light on the real reason behind his mocking towards Ben Shelton. He said, “It was a reaction against [Shelton]. He did not behave properly, with respect, on the court, and before the match. If anyone places himself in the unsportsmanlike zone, I react.” Now, after seeing this bizarre gesture towards Madison Keys in the player’s tunnel, some of the fans were a bit surprised as they wrote, “wait, what was that?” in the comments section of that IG post.

Besides being great at tennis, Ben Shelton is also quite a likable and humble person. His father, Bryan Shelton, once revealed that Ben Shelton has many friends on Tour, which is mainly due to his personality. He said, “For us, it’s essential to enjoy the time off the court as well as on it. It’s important to wear a smile, greet people, get to know them, and learn more about them.” However, this time, perhaps the greeting to Madison Keys went a bit too far. Some of the fans wrote, “What the heck 😂,” in the comment box.

Madison Keys and Ben Shelton have known each other for quite some time now, and they share a good bond between them. For example, in November 2024, when Madison Keys tied the knot with her longtime boyfriend and current coach, Bjorn Frantangelo, we saw Ben Shelton was among the first ones to congratulate her on her marriage. However, despite having this camaraderie between them, some of the fans didn’t look too pleased with his recent gesture towards Keys. They sarcastically wrote, “Real gentlemen 😢😢😢“

During the 2023 US Open, we saw Madison Keys sharing her gameplay guided by her coach and fiance, Bjorn Fratangel, which surprisingly was like taking a page out of Ben Shelton’s playbook. How? Well, Madison Keys revealed how Ben Shelton-like deal helped her improve her game. She said, “It’s funny, Bjorn has been wanting me to go after it more so he said if I hit a 121 I get anything I want. I hit a 119 tonight so I was so close.” So, both these tennis stars have made the headlines together for multiple reasons. However, after seeing Shelton’s controversial gesture another fan wrote, “I feel very old 😢.“

Ben Shelton is one of the biggest admirers of Roger Federer. During a previous interview, he said, “Roger is one of those guys who can do it all. He can do it on the court, he can do it off the court, he can do it at the Met Gala, he can do it at Wimbledon.” However, Roger Federer has always been a true gentleman on and off the court, respected by everyone in the tennis world. He is known for his class and elegance. After seeing these types of weird gestures from Ben Shelton, some of the fans wrote, “Fed wouldn’t have done that.” 

However, amid all this, Ben Shelton captured hearts by sharing a heartfelt note for Gael Monfils, who had to withdraw from their R4 match due to an injury. Even Shelton’s father, Bryan Shelton, was seen giving the Frenchman a hug as he was on his way to leave the court. So, it was a mix of a good and bad day for this young American when it came to winning the hearts of the fans. Share your thoughts on both of these incidents in the comment section.