American Men's Tennis Has a New Star, And It's 20 Year Old Ben Shelton Who Just Blasted His Way Into The US Open Semifinals

COREY SIPKIN. Getty Images.

"Sometimes you gotta shut off the brain, close your eyes, and just swing." That's what Ben Shelton said he did Tuesday night at the US Open during the biggest point of his career. 

His quarterfinal match against fellow American Frances Tiafoe was leveled at a set apiece. The 3rd set somehow found its way to a tiebreak despite six breaks of serve combined. There Shelton found himself a set point on his racket. For the first time all match he showed a bit of nerves and double faulted. 6-6. After a change of ends he double faulted again. 7-6, set point Tiafoe. In the span of a minute Shelton went from the driver's seat of the match to possibly having it all fall apart. So what did he do next? He turned off his brain, closed his eyes, and swung. The result was a 105 mph bazooka forehand that raced across the court for a winner. 7-7. 

After another mini-break, he found himself in familiar waters, set point on his racket. This time he composed himself and took home the crucial 3rd set. 

Shelton went onto cruise from there and secured a spot in Friday night's US Open semifinals. How's being the youngest American male to do that since 1992 sound? Special stuff. 

It's shit like that where you believe Ben Shelton can become a superstar in this sport. He plays with a fearlessness that's addicting to watch and it's gotten him into the semis of a slam as a 20 year old. 

At 6'4" 195 lbs he's built to be a problem for opponents all over the place. Shelton is still so, so raw, but his power, athleticism, and bravery are all at a high enough level already to be this successful. Just last summer he was ranked outside the top 500 and not a professional player yet. The former D1 singles champ at Florida was just getting his feet wet. A quarters run at this year's Aussie Open got him going, but he couldn't gain any traction at non-slam events. He's 9-1 this year at hard court majors and 8-20 elsewhere on the tour. Don't take that as a way to say he's not good, it's more just inexperience, or peaking at the right time. The fact that he shines brightest in the slams though is super exciting. Unlike most of his fellow American pros, he seems to thrive in the big moments. We need that. I love Taylor Fritz, but man was it hard to see him struggle during all the big points against Djokovic on Tuesday. 

Shelton has already snuck inside the top 20 of the ATP rankings because of this run. It's so sick that he's doing this already. When he's on the court he's must watch with his gifted game. He's a human highlight reel. 

It's only going to get better too. He's typically not the best returner in the world (an area he will for sure improve on as he further develops), but on Tuesday he gave Tiafoe fits. That definitely had something to do with Frances not playing his best, but Shelton took what was given to him. That's not going to happen Friday night against Novak, but reaching this far in the tournament this early in his career is incredible. Hey, maybe he takes a set off the old man? Maybe things get even trickier if Novak isn't on his game and Shelton's serving lights out. Probably not, but it's nice to dream. Either way it's a lot of fun to have someone this good and this young repping USA for the men's side. 

Kid's got a fun personality too, even if he does have a striking resemblance to Jackson Mahomes. We'll get past that. 

Tennis hasn't been this hot in the streets in America in a long time. We've even got Dave blogging how great a time he had the other day. What a world.