"It's still tough" - Andy Roddick lacks faith in Ben Shelton defeating Jannik Sinner at Wimbledon QF despite Italian being injured

Andy Roddick recently gave his two cents on 10th-seeded Ben Shelton's quarterfinal outing against World No. 1 Jannik Sinner at 2025 Wimbledon. The 2003 US Open champion believes that although the American has made some significant improvements in his grasscourt game, he still has ways to go before he can take down the Italian at the Majors.

Shelton endured a rough grass season in the lead-up to Wimbledon, losing back-to-back early-round matches at Queen's Club and Mallorca. That, however, factored little into his campaign at SW19 last week as he dropped just one set en route to the last eight.

Earlier this week, Andy Roddick took to his podcast to unpack the chances that Ben Shelton, who is the last American male in the men's singles draw at Wimbledon, has against an opponent of Jannik Sinner's pedigree. While the former World No. 1 maintained that the 22-year-old had done an impressive "course correction" recently, he conceded that outplaying Sinner from the baseline required a different game plan as opposed to the one Shelton is accustomed to.

"Props to Ben, he looked lost in Mallorca when he was playing there. He's playing great, his angles to the shots are better, his shot selection is better," Andy Roddick said on the latest episode of his podcast, 'Served with Andy Roddick'. "His insistence on running around everything is less, he's learning how to pitch a ball game a little bit better, use the spins a little bit better. I didn't see the course correction happening for Ben Shelton based on what I saw in Queen's, what I saw in Mallorca."

"It's still at this point even with Dimitrov exposing Jannik in that match, it's still tough," he added. "The thing that was working best was neutralizing Sinner off that backhand side," I don't know if Ben has that shot yet. I'll tell you, two weeks ago, if you would've said this match, I'm like, 'Oh, Sinner all day.'"

It is pertinent to note that Shelton's chances against Sinner will also be influenced by the elbow injury the latter suffered during his fourth-round match. The 23-year-old has since told the media that he will undergo an MRI scan, casting a shadow of doubt over his prospects of reaching the semifinals at SW19.

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"Ben Shelton is three times the player in longer format" - Andy Roddick

Ben Shelton hits a forehand at Wimbledon | Image Source: Getty

In his analysis, Andy Roddick insisted that Ben Shelton beating Jannik Sinner in the Best-of-5 format would be a tall order for the American. Yet, the 42-year-old asserted that there were "a lot of positives" for the 10th seed going into his Round-of-16 bout.

"Ben's gotta punch his chance in this match. I can't say he's gonna beat Sinner 3 out of 5, at a Major yet, but also the other thing about Ben, he is three times the player, which is a great thing, in a longer format. He finds comfort in the longer format, there's a lot of positives going for Ben," Andy Roddick said. "I still think Sinner gets through but I've been so impressed with the progress of Ben from three weeks ago, two weeks ago."

Roddick, meanwhile, enjoyed great results at Wimbledon during his career, going by his three runner-up finishes (2005-06, 2009) at the grasscourt Major.