"I'll leave him alone" - Ben Shelton admits to giving Taylor Fritz 'too much of a hard time' over hilarious calculation fail

Ben Shelton recently shed light on his hilarious calculation incident with Taylor Fritz on social media. The former admitted giving the latter a tough time with a match question in their online interaction.

After besting Aleksandar Vukic in the round of 32 of the Citi Open, Fritz shared a post on Instagram and captioned it as 'Capital gainzzz'. This garnered Shelton's attention, who asked a math question in the comment section, writing, 'What's 50x20?' Fritz did not think of pulling out a calculator and smoothly typed the wrong answer with sarcasm that read, 'shutup I only deal in 100's.'

Following this hilarious interaction, Fritz was asked the same question in an interview, where he then gave the right answer and admitted that he was drinking the night he replied to Shelton's comment. Reflecting on this statement by Fritz, the 22-year-old said that he gave him a tough time with the question in a recent Citi Open press conference.

"I probably gave Fritz too much of a hard time. He said there were drinks involved. I'm going to give him a little bit of a break on that. He did get it in the end, he got it right. He's a sharp guy, good tennis mind. You know, I don't know how far he went in school, quite frankly, but that's most tennis players. But he got there in the end, he got it. I'll leave him alone on that," said Ben Shelton.

Shelton recently progressed to the semi-final round of the Citi Open after defeating fellow American player Frances Tiafoe in the quarter-final round.

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Ben Shelton opened up about his training strategies to handle the heat at the US Open

In a recent press conference at the Citi Open after defeating Mackenzie McDonald in the round of 32, Ben Shelton opened up about his training strategies for tackling heat at the US Open. He revealed that he prepared his body to handle the weather by getting in a hot tub almost every day.

"I only had a week so, I was getting in the hot tub up to my neck for 15 minutes at a time, doing sessions like that. Unless I have a sauna, then sauna sessions as well, really important," Ben Shelton said.

Opening up about the US summer can be a challenge, he added:

"But to be able to get used to being in the heat and kind of go over the top so it doesn't feel so hot on the court... Obviously on a 95-degree [Fahrenheit] day on a hard court, it feels like 115 or 120. So there's a lot of things that go into playing on the hard courts and being ready to play, on top of just your tennis game. That's what makes the U.S. summer a challenge."

Ben Shelton is currently gearing up to compete at the semi-final round of the Citi Open on July 27, 2025. His opponent has yet to be decided.