Ben Shelton saved three match points before finishing another rally at the Dallas Open, beating top-seeded Taylor Fritz in three sets for the title Sunday in a matchup of the world's highest-ranked American men.
The No. 2 seed and No. 9 player in the ATP rankings lost the first set in each of the last three rounds of the tournament, this time coming back for a 3-6, 6-3, 7-5 victory over Fritz in the first meeting of the top seeds since the event moved to Dallas in 2022.
Shelton improved to 4-0 in ATP finals and beat Fritz, ranked seventh in the world, after the pair had split their first two meetings. The 23-year-old's title came after he reached the Australian Open quarterfinals last month, losing in straight sets to Jannik Sinner.
After saving three match points to get the third set to 5-5, Shelton had three chances to close out Fritz while serving for the match. Fritz saved the first two, but the 10-time ATP champion couldn't match his opponent by saving the third.
“This was a crazy match to be a part of,” The Associated Press quoted Shelton as saying. “I thought the level was amazing.”
Fritz's dominant serving from a semifinal win over Marin Cilic — the 28-year-old didn't even face a break point while winning both tiebreakers in a straight-sets victory — carried over to the first set of the final. Fritz won 12 of his first 13 service points while breaking Shelton in the left-hander's first service game.
Shelton turned the match late in the second set by breaking Fritz's serve for a 5-3 lead, then did it again early in the third set.
Fritz broke back for 3-3 was leading 5-4 on Shelton's serve when he had three chances to close out the match. Shelton got to deuce with an overhead smash from the net and a backhand winner that caught Fritz going the wrong way.
On Fritz's last match point, Shelton converted a volley to get back to deuce and went on to hold serve with a backhand volley into the open court with both players at the net.
“If you’d told me I lost after having three match points, I think I would expect to be a lot more upset,” Fritz said. “It hurts, but I feel like it doesn’t hurt as much as I would expect it to because I don’t really have a lot of regrets with how I played those match points.”
Fritz's double-fault — the only one of the match for either player — gave Shelton three break points at 5-5. Shelton converted the second break chance when Fritz's forehand went long.
An ace on a second serve gave Shelton three match points, and he converted the second when Fritz's lunging return attempt on Shelton's approach shot fell short.
