Ben Shelton admitted he got outplayed by Arthur Gea after he suffered a loss against Frenchman in the third round of the Rolex Shanghai Masters on Sunday.
After his incredible run at the US Open, where he qualified for the final of a Slam for the first time, Shelton suffered two losses in the Davis Cup. He then opted out of the Japan Open due to injury and didn’t have a lot of time to prepare for the Asian swing.
“I got outplayed today,” Shelton said after Gea’s 7-6(5), 7-6(3) victory. “The guy played better than me. A hundred percent, I would have liked to have come over here earlier and be prepared and have already dealt with the jet lag by the time I was playing here in the Shanghai Masters.”
This is Gea’s first win over a Top-10 opponent and also his first win against Shelton in the first meeting between the two.
The American admitted that the Frenchman handled his serve in a good way and did a great job on the return.
“I thought he handled my serve outstandingly,” Shelton said. “I thought he did a great job on return today [from] start to finish. He put it a lot in play. He was putting them deep to the baseline. It was tough to attack.
“There were hardly any — as the match went on — points where I was getting easy free points or first balls to attack and come to the net on, so a lot of credit to him.”
Shelton is next scheduled to take part at the ATP 500 event in Basel, which begins on 26 October.
Gea will next face Jakub Mensik in the round of 16 on Tuesday.
