Ben Shelton needs 70 seconds to win Wimbledon match after furious row | Tennis | Sport

No. 10 seed Ben Shelton finally booked his spot in the third round of Wimbledon after his match against Rinky Hijikata was suspended at a crucial moment on Thursday night. The American asked for play to be halted after he took a two-set lead, as he feared the grass was becoming slippery and didn’t want to get halfway through the third set before being forced off.

But his worst fears came true – Shelton blew three match points in Hijikata’s serve at 5-3 and was prepared to serve it out at 5-4 when the umpire officially suspended play around 9.30pm due to darkness. The American was understandably furious and the supervisor took to the court to calm him down, but he came back to close out a 6-2 7-5 6-4 victory in just 70 seconds on Friday afternoon.

Shelton and Hijikata walked onto Court 2 and 1.23pm and resumed play at 1.29pm. From when Shelton started serving again, he served out the match to love, and it was over by 1.30pm.

The 22-year-old hit three aces and a service winner to get the job done – sending a statement and proving that he easily could have completed play on Thursday night.

Hijikata immediately left the court, while Shelton addressed the fans on Court 2, apologising for getting the job done so quickly.

“For me, I thought it was a great match, a clean match. I thought Rinky played really well. My shot-making was really high last night, the crowd was in it,” he said.

“I’m not sure how many of you guys were in the crowd last night but thanks everybody for staying late and then coming back. For me, very different playing over two days, coming out for what was it, 55 seconds today!

“I was hoping to maybe hit a few groundstrokes today! Might have to go to the practice courts. Overall I couldn’t be more happy being in the third round of Wimbledon.”

It’s not the first time Shelton has had a Wimbledon match span two days. Although he wasn’t pleased when play was halted with him leading 5-4 in the third set last night, he knew exactly how to adjust and put on a perfect serving performance on Friday.

He added: “Maybe three times here at Wimbledon, maybe this is the third, this seems to be the tournament where I split over two days, whether it’s rain or it gets dark out here. It’s just one of those tournaments, you’ve got to be able to adjust on the fly, get used to stopping, starting, warming up. It’s part of what makes tennis fun.

“I missed one first serve, some things to be upset about, hope to improve on in the next round! For me obviously, you come out, you’re serving for the match, the nerves are there a little bit. To hit three aces and take the pressure off myself, I couldn’t be happier with what I came out here and did.

“I’m sorry that you guys didn’t really get to see much tennis! No rallies but hopefully the rest of the matches today and hopefully my match tomorrow you guys see a little bit more tennis.”

Shelton will be back again on Saturday to face lucky loser Marton Fucsovics for a spot in the second week.

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