Who Is Ben Shelton?
Ben Shelton is ranked #9 in the world and is the best American on the ATP Tour, known for his big serve. He reached the 2026 US Open final.
The Serve Is Real
Table: top 4 from the ATP Serve Leaderboard.
| Player |
Serve Rating |
% 1st Serve |
% 1st Serve Points Won |
% 2nd Serve Points Won |
% Service Games Won |
Avg. Aces/ Match |
Avg. Double Faults/Match |
|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  Jannik Sinner |
303.1 | 64.2% | 80.6% | 58.1% | 93.2% | 8.4 | 1.4 |
| 2 |  Ben Shelton |
299.6 | 67.9% | 76.7% | 57.6% | 90.3% | 9.8 | 2.7 |
| 3 |  Taylor Fritz |
299.6 | 65.4% | 79.4% | 53.6% | 89.2% | 14.1 | 2.1 |
| 4 |  Alexander Zverev |
299.1 | 72.2% | 75.3% | 56.6% | 88.1% | 8.8 | 1.9 |
| 5 |  Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard |
297.7 | 71.0% | 77.0% | 50.1% | 87.0% | 15.9 | 3.3 |
Shelton ranks #2 on serve. Aces don’t drive the rating, though: Sinner hits fewer than Fritz and still ranks first. What matters is consistency.
What the Serve Can’t Do
Shelton is #2 of 50 on serve, but he isn’t in the top 50 on return. Sinner and Alcaraz are top-3 on both. Shelton holds his serve but can’t break his opponent’s, so his matches come down to tiebreaks and fifth sets.
How It Played Out
Zverev, ranked just behind Shelton on serve, landed more first serves (72.2% vs 67.9%), double-faulted less, and ranks on the return board. He won the final in four sets. The serve made Shelton a finalist. It’s also why he wasn’t the champion.
The following data is from ATPtour.com. The leaderboard shows the top 50 players based on their serving stats as seen below.