In a sport crying out for character Shelton is its 193cm saviour. In his run to the US Open semi-finals in 2023, Shelton debuted the now infamous ‘dialled-in’ phone celebration which birthed thousands of viral tennis memes and even led to a much-publicised beef with the tennis GOAT, Novak Djokovic.

MELBOURNE, Australia — In the fog of his 150mph serves, his seemingly limitless athleticism and his frightening forehand, it is sometimes hard to figure out why Ben Shelton doesn’t win just about every tennis match he plays.