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Ben Shelton, the No. 12 seed in the 2025 Italian Open's men's singles draw, suffered a stunning loss to Jaume Munar in Rome. The Spaniard comprehensively defeated the American 6-2, 6-1, and this prompted several tennis fans to turn critical towards the latter.
As the 12th seed in the Italian capital, Shelton received a first-round bye and began his campaign directly in the second round against Munar. The one-sided contest saw the American struggle mightily on his serve, which is widely regarded as the greatest strength in his game. Munar capitalized ruthlessly on Shelton's erratic display, and converted five out of 12 break point chances on his way to victory.
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Many tennis fans spanning X (formerly Twitter) and Reddit lambasted Ben Shelton over his lackluster display against Jaume Munar at the 2025 Italian Open.
"Yeah I’m not even sure Ben wanted to be out there today. His dad wasn’t there and I don’t think he’s even playing doubles this tournament," a fan wrote.
"I tuned in at the end and oh my, did not expect Ben to get demolished like this," commented another.
"Yu all hyped Shelton from the beginning like if he's gonna be the next Sampras," another fan chimed in.
"In the most neutral way possible, i see him as a younger Tiafoe. meh runs outside the US and will only vibe off crowd energy for IW, Miami, Cincy, and the US Open for a few deep runs here and there," weighed in yet another fan.
There were others who weren't surprised by the result, with a few citing Munar's 6-2, 7-6(3) win over Shelton at this year's Dallas Open.
"He just beat Shelton on an indoor hard court, so this isn’t surprising in the least on clay," opined one fan.
"Serve bot hard court merchant vs clay court specialist. No surprise here," added another.
Despite his mostly subpar results on clay so far this year, Shelton stated his ambition to improve his game on the surface at the Madrid Open.
"I want to be great on this surface one day" - Ben Shelton at Madrid Open 2025
Following a narrow win over Mariano Navone in the second round of the 2025 Madrid Open, Ben Shelton told Tennis Channel that he was loving his experience during this year's European claycourt swing. He also laid bare his desire to become a dominant force on clay in the future.
"I’m loving it. I’ve already played a lot of great claycourt players this year and I think I learned something from each of them. I’m enjoying the learning process. I think, for me, playing on claycourt, it’s not much to lose but a lot to gain. And I want to be great on this surface one day," Shelton said.
Ben Shelton's Madrid Open campaign didn't last long, as he exited the ATP Masters 1000 event with a 1-6, 4-6 loss to reigning Miami Open champion Jakub Mensik.
The American did have a memorable campaign at the 2025 Bavarian International Tennis Championships (BMW Open) in Munich though, where he reached the final. Ultimately though, he had to settle for second-best at the ATP 500-level event after losing to Alexander Zverev at the last hurdle.
