Florida Star Ben Shelton Earns First-Round Win at U.S. Open

World No. 8 men’s tennis player and former Florida standout Ben Shelton opened his 2026 U.S. Open campaign Monday with a 3-1 win against unranked Dutch player Tallon Griekspoor. 

Shelton dropped the opening set 1-6 to Griekspoor before quickly responding with a 6-1 set win of his own. The players began to even out their play, and set three went to the tie-breaker after the pair tied at 6-6. Shelton won the tiebreaker, ending the set 7-6 to advance in four sets (1-6, 6-1, 7-6 (7-3), 6-2) at Arthur Ashe Stadium in New York. 

“Obviously a lot of credit to Tallon, he’s a difficult player to play,” Shelton said. “He doesn’t give you a lot of rhythm. He has an attacking game style and I found things really difficult for the first set tonight.” 

After suffering from a career-long drought in major wins, Shelton has fallen short of expectations this year. 

At the French Open in May, the field opened when top-ranked Jannik Sinner exited early in the tournament and champion Carlos Alcaraz was out injured. Shelton was expected to make significant headway but failed to capitalize on the opportunity. 

With Alcaraz, last year’s Open champ, and No. 1 Alexander Zverev competing at Arthur Ashe Stadium, Shelton will have to take the long road in order to win his first major championship at a tournament that ended his season 2025 after he suffered a third-round injury.

He will face Poland’s Hubert Hurkacz in the second round Wednesday 

“There are a lot of opportunities after last year’s injury, my third-round exit here, and the fact that I couldn’t do much for the rest of the season,” Shelton said. “I think that over this final stretch of the 2026 season, I’m really going to give it everything, and we’ll see how far that can take us.” 

Category: Former Gators, Gators Tennis, Tennis, US Open