Who has pleasantly shocked at the Grand Slams this year? Two Atlanta natives

The tennis season has been full of Grand Slam surprises. It wasn’t individual matches, but the fact that players went from being outsiders to the very top. At Wimbledon last year, the twenty-seven-year-old American from Atlanta, Christopher Eubanks, caught everyone by surprise.

All the interesting action on the London courts around him had already started in the first round of last year’s Wimbledon, in which the American met the clay-court Monteiro. There, despite being a big favourite in the duel, he had to turn the tide of the match, but in the end he made it in four sets. With 28 aces under his belt, he made it through to the next round.

In the second round, Christopher was facing British Norrie. In this match, the American gave an admirable performance. He offered only two break points in the match and once again helped himself with his excellent cannon serve. He deservedly went on past the seeded twelve after a 3: 1 set scoreline.

In the third round, Eubanks was already the favourite. He was waiting for him to defeat Jirka Vesely, a native of Pribram: O’Connell. In all the sets the end of the sets were decisive, where the American proved to be stronger each time, who again used his great service and advanced further, moreover “only” in three sets.

The eighth Wimbledon final was a great success for the American. His progress through the rankings was very fast overall last year, but he certainly did not expect to break into the top eight at Wimbledon over Greek Tsitsipas. One of the most epic battles last year that tennis viewers could have seen!

A very attractive match full of twists and turns and beautiful exchanges was finally dominated by Eubanks after five sets and three hours. In the quarter-finals, Christopher Eubanks had already found his opponent in the Russian tennis player Medvedev. Despite a great effort and an evenly matched battle, the Russian’s experience showed in key moments and after a great show, he was the one to rejoice.

At last year’s US Open, twenty-one-year-old Ben Shelton from Atlanta (apparently the promised city of tennis) surprised everyone by making it all the way to the semi-finals! Shelton – what can I say about this tremendous talent. Only twenty-one years old, the American shocked not only his way to the US Open, but also his other results!

Shelton passed the first and second rounds smoothly, first he was faced by clay player Cachin, then after the first set played he was cut down by the well-known Viennese Dominic Thiem. The first harder match came in the third round, where he faced the Russian Karatsev. Shelton scored 26 aces and after a 6:0 debacle in the fourth set, he continued on in the tournament.

Then came the eighth round and his compatriot Tommy Paul. The match was evenly matched, but the key moments were simply handled better by Shelton and he fought his way into the top eight. There, another compatriot and also a huge hope of American and world tennis Francis Tiafoe awaited him and this time many experts already expected the final for the American super talent Ben Shelton.

Surprisingly, Shelton made it again. Tiafoe wasn’t playing his best tennis and it just couldn’t be enough for Ben’s 50 winners. In the semifinals, he was already facing the absolute legend Novak Djokovic and Shelton just couldn’t keep up with him. The Serbian dictated the pace of play from the start and dominated the match with ease.

But it was a huge boost for Ben and I believe it is more than certain that Ben Shelton will be very dangerous again on the concrete and certainly on other ATP tour tournaments.

Source: ATP, Wikipedia