Heart of Breaking

Chris Black– What do you think about New York?

Ben Shelton– I like it, man.

Chris– You never lived here though, right?

Ben– No, I never lived here. The first time I came here was 2021 for the US Open. Actually no, that's not true. I came to watch the US Open once. One time in 2017, but yeah, it's a pretty wild city.

Jason Stewart– I saw your post on Instagram today about the TV show Suits. Are you a Suits lover?

Ben– I like the show a lot. It's having a moment, right now, because it hit the algorithm on Netflix. It's happening. It's back.

Chris– How much time do you have to watch television?

Ben– Not that much. I mean, but when I was in high school and college, I had a lot. Because, I was busy not doing homework.

Jason–  So you have one more year of college?

Ben– I have maybe 11 classes left. 11 or 12 classes. I started one of my classes today.

Chris– Okay. What is the degree going to be in?

Ben– General business. When I was in college, I did a finance degree, but they didn't have an online version of it, so I had to switch to general business.

Jason– So once you get the diploma, what are you going to do with it?

Ben– I don't know.

Chris– Your mom's going to put it on the wall.

Ben– Hopefully I don't have to use it for a long time.

Chris– I think general business feels like a smart thing to do because a lot of guys in your position do sports medicine, which seems less useful to be honest.

Ben– Or sports management.

Chris– You got people for that. How many people do you travel with?

Ben– I just travel with two right now. My dad, who's my coach and I have a physio.

Jason– So is that every day, morning and night?

Ben– Yeah, so I'll wake up. I'll get on the table with him for 30 minutes. Then we'll do maybe 30 more minutes of exercises. Then a warm-up before my practice, post practice. We'll do a stretch for 20 minutes. Cool down and stretch. And then we're on the table at night for maybe an hour. There's a lot. It's not easy…

Jason– Are you in the ice plunge?

Ben– Yeah. Not every day.

Chris– But how long can you go?

Ben– I mean, I can go 15 minutes.

Jason– Do you have any tips on people reading this who might be afraid of the ice plunge? That might be intimidated by it?

Ben– I don't know. I think that the ice plunge is a big mental thing for me. It's like, 'okay, how can I handle being uncomfortable on court when I'm in different situations?'

Jason– I think this is the one-year anniversary of you being pro. I read today you went pro right before the Open. Are you going to celebrate the anniversaries every year of when you went pro? Are you going to go out tonight? Are you going to pop some bub?

Ben– I don't think so. I'm only 20, so that's not really legal.

Chris– So with skateboarding, when you become a pro, as an example, you get your deck, you get your board, your pro model. You know what I mean? So when you turn pro, is it just a sign on a contract?

Ben– I don't know what the sign is that you really turned pro because everything that I was kind of...

Chris– You were already doing it.

Ben– I mean, I guess the only difference is when you're in college, you can't accept any money. You have to expense everything. So I mean, that's the only thing that really changed. You start paying taxes and all these different things.

Chris– The bad stuff.

Ben– You build a team around you. I mean, there's good and bad pros and cons to everything.

Jason– The pros and cons of being pro.

Ben– Yeah exactly, a lot of changes.

Chris– I was under the impression that a lot of people travel with a big team.

Ben– I can't do it.

Chris– Because of money or because you're like, "I'm good"?

Ben– Well, one, I don't want to spend that much money. And two, I feel like the more people that you have, the more responsibility the more you have to coordinate. I like to keep things simple.

Ben Shelton plays doubles with Iga Świątek

Chris– Now your dad's been your coach for a long time.

Ben– Yeah. Very long time.

Chris– Now that can get stressful but you guys seem to get along.

Ben– Yeah, I think that the most difficult time for us was when I was in college, because he was the collegiate coach. So having to deal with 12 other guys while dealing with me and then he has to build his lineup and put his son in there somewhere. But he's got to be careful that he is not showing favoritism. So I always got it rough, which I understood, because I'd rather him not show favoritism than show it to me.

Chris– That would make your life harder too.

Jason– But if you win every game then it's weird not to put you in.

Ben– Yeah, he was fair. He was fair but tough on me. And so now that we're out here, it's just one on one, it's like a piece of cake.

Chris– I know he played, but did he coach before or just at college?

Ben– He did. So he played in college. He played pro and then he coached when there were junior players coming up, he worked at the USTA for a while. He was working with Andy Roddick and Mardy Fish, that group of guys. And then he coached at Georgia Tech, he coached the women's tennis team.

Chris– So you lived in Atlanta?

Ben– I did for the first 10 years of my life.

Chris– That's where I'm from. Do you go back?

Ben– I do. I was just there for the Atlanta Open. But no, we have a lot of family there up in the Johns Creek area.

Jason– So you play singles and doubles. What is good about doubles? What's the advantage of doubles?

Ben– Are you guys doubles, haters?

Chris– Kind of, yeah. It's fun for you though. I bet.

Ben– So I mean, doubles. It gives you a chance to play a little more freely. Not everything is on you.

Chris– Oh, I see what you mean. You're a teammate. You can have a little more fun space.

Ben– Yeah. If something happens. It's not just you putting all that pressure on yourself.

Chris– But if your teammate fucks up...

Ben– Dude, you can't... you got to be a good teammate. I think that's one of the skills that I learned in college is how to be a great teammate. And I think that that helps me with my doubles a lot. And then I have fun. You have a bigger court. There's more space when you're returning serves or hitting shots, there's a target up at the net that's not just standing there.

Chris– It feels like it also hones a different set of skills a little bit.

Ben– Completely different. The doubles guys have a different skill set than the singles guys. But I mean, my doubles matches lately. These crowds have been packed. And how happy these people are to see the type of points that are happening and stuff. It's almost like more energetic than my singles matches, which was crazy for me, but I was like, ‘oh, if this is the impact that I have when I play doubles, then I want to keep doing it. These people are pumped to see it and it's another chance for them to watch me.'

Jason– You still get paid from those doubles wins.

Ben– Yeah, exactly. You got to split it, but you know...

Jason– Do you split it 50/50, or is it...

Ben– Yeah, you can't say like, ‘hey, I gave more in that match. You're not getting your full half.’

Jason– Like, “you know what? I kind of fucked up today. We'll do 60/40.”

Ben– Yeah, that's not a thing.

Jason– You were just in LA a month ago or so doing those exhibitions. What's it like doing that?

Ben– I mean, it was fun. A change of pace. Completely different format from the ACP tour and definitely a lot of young people there who enjoyed it. It's one of those things where it's so different. It's kind of tennis, but kind of not at the same time.

Jason– Do you feel more pressure to do some wild shots?

Ben– Oh yeah, for sure. Yeah. And I did end up having a lot of fun. It was a cool event. I'm early in my career, I want to establish myself on the ATP tour. I want to play more events there and get used to being out here and in the feel of it. 

Chris– That's what I want to ask you about though. How do you wear the jewelry on the court? Is it good luck? Are you superstitious?

Ben– No, they're light. I like the way it looks.

Jason– But it never gets in the way?

Ben– So when I had a cross on it, it got in the way. It was a little too long so I took that one off. It was my favorite one, but it was hitting me in the face bad. I thought I was going to lose a tooth so I had to take the third one off. On the tennis tour though, those guys, they really, really love watches. That's their thing.

Jason– Yeah, that's because they're rich as fuck.

Chris– You will be too.

Jason– Did you buy a watch yet?

Ben– No, I'm more of a car guy than a watch guy.

Chris– What do we got? What do we pushing?

Ben– I have a Mercedes.

Chris– So did you put shoes on it or are we keeping it factory? Did we tint the windows?

Ben– We tinted the windows. Everything else factory. It came nice. It came completely blacked out. Red detailing on the inside.

Jason– So when you're flying all over, you got the jet lag. Does it affect the mind or the body more?

Ben– The body, but then the body affects the mind. I mean as soon as you start thinking about, ‘oh, I'm not feeling good physically going on the court, you're not in a good place. But I haven't had it too bad, other than Australia, Australia got me. That was my first time out of the country and I went all the way to Australia.

Chris– Oh, wow. That's as far as you can go.

Ben– That first week was pretty bad.

Jason– Federer's old ass is feeling a lot more than you are. Enjoy it while you can.

Chris– What's the diet looking like?

Ben– I'm not crazy restrictive. I have a balanced diet.

Chris– But you don't have a nutritionist or anything?

Ben– I don't. I mean, my physio helps me.

Chris– He's in your ear a little bit.

Ben– Yeah, he's in my ear. My coach is in my ear.

Chris– He's flushing the flaming hot Cheetos down the toilet?

Ben– That's something that I could look at. But I also think that the more that you really get hyper-focused on those things, maybe it'd be something that's detrimental to me.

Chris– I kind of agree. If you're good now, there's no reason to.

Jason– Are you going to do anything else in New York? Do you have time for any non tennis activities? Go shopping?

Ben– We'll see. I mean, I'm trying to stay low-key this week. Locked in. I really want to do well here at the US Open. So that's the priority. And then if I have a few days when I'm done, then hopefully...

Chris– It's going to be the good stuff. All right, well look, enjoy your time in New York and good luck at the US Open.

Ben– I appreciate it, thank you.