American Ben Shelton heads to the Australian Open after losing in the Auckland quarterfinals

AUCKLAND, New Zealand Eighth-ranked Ben Shelton was knocked out of the ATP 250 tournament in Auckland, New Zealand on Friday in a quarterfinal spread over two days because of top-seeded Shelton lost 7-5, 6-3 to Sebastian Baez of Argentina, who is unseeded and ranked led 1-0 in the second set on Thursday night when torrential rain caused the match to be suspended. When it resumed Friday, Baez served to level the match, then broke the American to lead went on to beat American Marcos Giron 6-1, 6-4 in a semifinal later Friday. Three quarterfinals and both semifinals were played on the same day because of the rain will play third-seeded Jakub Mensik, who reached Saturday's final when he beat Fabian Marozsan 7-6, 4-6 https://www.argentina2026shop.com/collections/cristian-romero-jersey , 6-1. Marozsan had beaten defending champion Gael Monfils in the first round and second-seeded Casper Ruud in the swept through the first set against Giron in 27 minutes but faced a much tougher contest in the second set. He had an early break but Giron broke back to level the set at 4-4. Baez then gained the crucial break in the ninth game in which there were six deuces and four break is a good preparation for Australia, for sure, Baez said. n that case I'm happy to take both matches 23-year-old Shelton, the top-ranked American on tour ahead of No. 9 Taylor Fritz, now heads to the Australian Open in which he will play Ugo Humbert of France in the first a news conference in Auckland, Shelton said he believes there are young players capable of bridging the gap to Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz, who have won the last eight Grand Slam singles titles between hopes to be one of 've certainly been ahead of the pack the last couple years, Shelton said. ut in my mind there's definitely guys who can come up there and challenge, young guys who are playing great, better and better every is 22 and Sinner 24.o be doing what Alcaraz and Sinner are doing at such a young age is not normal but there's so many young guys who haven't fully developed or we haven't seen their best tennis said the 2025 season as a great stepping stone for me... there's so many things I improved on in 2025 versus 2024."nd, for me, it's not all about the results. It's more what I find in my game, the things that I figure out, Shelton added. "So there is a lot to be able to build off of this year. Gabriel Rojas Jersey