Photo credit: BMW Open Munich Facebook
Ben Shelton is bouncing with new life after nearly suffering dirt demise.
Shelton broke three times beating Botic van de Zandschulp 7-6(1), 6-3 to reach his maiden Munich quarterfinal at the BMW Open.
The victory came one round after Shelton staved off three match points edging Croatian qualifier Borna Gojo 4-6, 7-6(6), 7-6(6) in a two hour, 23-minute battle.
Today, the left-handed Shelton spread the court often sliding his slice serve out wide to displace the Dutchman and set up his favored first-strike forehands. Shelton broke to start the second set, stamped his fourth love hold to consolidate and never looked back in a 90-minute win.
The second-seeded Shelton stopped the lucky loser’s bid for his 100th career Tour-level match win and reached his 16th Tour-level quarterfinal.
It’s Shelton’s second career clay-court quarterfinal following his run to the 2024 Houston championship on the red clay of River Oaks.
Next up for Shelton is dangerous Italian Luciano Darderi.
World No. 47 Darderi rallied past sturdy Serbian Miomir Kecmanovic 2-6, 7-6(4), 6-4 to advance to his seventh ATP Tour quarterfinal—all seven coming on dirt.
In the second set, Darderi squandered a 4-1 lead but recovered winning four of the final five points to take the tiebreaker. The deciding set stayed on serve until Darderi broke for 5-4 and served it out at love.
Marrakech champion Darderi rides a seven-match winning streak on dirt into the quarterfinal clash vs. Shelton.
In an all-German match, Alexander Zverev dismissed wild card Daniel Altmaier 6-3, 6-2.
The top-seeded Zverev is hunting for his third career Munich championship following back-to-back title runs in 2017-18.
Zverev improved to 16-7 on the season.
Australian Open finalist Zverev will face Dutchman Tallon Griekspoor for a final four spot.
Griekspoor drilled 12 aces in a 7-6(3), 6-3 win over German Yannick Hanfmann.