A quarter-final at the first Grand Slam of the year is a good start for most tennis players, but for world number 7 Ben Shelton, it’s a disappointing result.
Shelton dropped a set through the first four rounds of the 2026 Australian Open, but ran into buzzsaw Jannik Sinner in the quarters. The world number 2 beat Shelton in straight sets, 6-3, 6-4, 6-4. Sinner has now won nine straight matches and 22 straight sets against Shelton. It’s not much of a rivalry, considering how one-sided the results have been.
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Still, Shelton is improving. Both men acknowledged this fact.
“It’s very difficult to play against Ben,” Sinner said. “He has a huge serve and he improves tremendously every year. Especially after the offseason, you never know how some players are going to play against you and how they have changed other things.”
Shelton said he’s a “much different player than he was 12 months ago,” and that’s true. He’s worked hard to become a bigger threat at the net and has a more mature approach to the game, at least compared to the past when he played with reckless power. A touch of finesse is now noticeable, but Sinner is still on another level.
“Jannik is a very tough player. I think that’s one of the tough things I faced today,” Shelton said. “I felt like even though I was hitting the ball, I couldn’t get him out of rhythm as much as I wanted to.”
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Shelton is clearly in the top 10 and should maintain his ranking this year, barring injury. But he will have to be perfect to break through the “Sincaraz duopoly” at the top of the rankings. Much of 2026 will be about figuring that out for the former Florida Gator.
Ben Shelton world ranking, official points
Shelton entered the first grand slam of the 2026 season as the world’s No. 7 player and the highest-ranked American with 4,000 official points.
Because he reached the semifinal Down Under a year ago, Shelton lost 400 points by finishing in the quarterfinals. Shelton remains in the top 10, but he has fallen to 9th and is no longer the highest-ranked American, ceding the title to Taylor Fritz.
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The good news is that it can’t go any lower no matter how the Australian Open goes. Alcaraz and Sinner will battle for the top two spots, and Novak Djokovic and Alexander Zverev hold the No. 3 and 4 spots. Lorenzo Mussetti (4,405), Alex de Minaur (4,080), Fritz (3,940) and Felix Auger-Aliassime (3,725) are also immediately ranked ahead of Shelton.
What’s next for Ben Shelton
The next major tennis tournament will take place in March in Indian Wells as part of the BNP Paribas Open, followed by the Miami Open at the end of the month. Shelton spent last February in the Eastern Hemisphere re-acclimating to the American hard-court scene.
He is likely to return to the Dallas 500 and Acapulco 500, just as he did in 2025. Shelton only reached the round of 16 at each of those tournaments last year. Deeper runs can help him recover the 400 points lost at the Australian Open this year. Play begins in Dallas on February 9 and in Acapulco on February 23.
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This article was originally published on Gators Wire: Florida Gators Tennis Ben Shelton vs. Jannik Sinner Australian Open
