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After Andy Murray, Ben Shelton shares his ‘unpopular opinion’ on night matches in tournaments like Atlanta

Originally posted on FirstSportz | By Rishab Dutta | Last updated 2/28/24

American tennis player Ben Shelton is currently playing in the 2024 Mexican Open and he has had an interesting takeaway from the unique scheduling of the tournament. The youngster gave an unpopular opinion on his Instagram story, where he said that he wanted it to be implemented in tournaments like the Atlanta Open as well.

The Mexican Open, which takes place in Acapulco, takes a detour from the usual timing that is followed by the other tournaments across the globe. Here, the matches usually start at 5:30 PM in order to avoid the high daytime temperatures that lead to a lot of problems for the players. Nighttime matches also increase fan presence in the stadiums a lot, which also makes this move good for the financial aspect.

Ben Shelton asked this scheduling to be followed at the Atlanta Open as well because that is another tournament where it becomes almost unbearable to play in day for the players. The tournament takes place in July and the temperatures at Atlanta during that time are extremely high.

Hot take like Andy Murray.... Unpopular opinion: a tournament like Atlanta in the summer should only have night matches like they do in Acapulco, stadium here is always packed, and a few other tournaments. Would be better for the fans for sure, and probably end up with bigger crowds . Shelton wrote on one of his Instagram Stories.

Ben Shelton makes it to the second round of the Mexican Open

Ben Shelton defeated Dan Evans in the first round of the 2024 Mexican Open in a thrilling 3-set match. He lost the first set but managed to make a comeback from there. He will now be facing Italy’s Matteo Arnaldi in the second round.

Before this, he took part in the Dallas Open and Shelton’s performance there was pretty decent. He defeated Michael Mmoh in the first round, Jordan Thompson in the second round, and ultimately lost to Tommy Paul in the semifinal.

A positive result in the Mexican Open will really help the youngster in getting his confidence back. His third-round exit from the Australian Open after losing to Adrian Mannarino and his loss against Taro Daniel in the ASB Classic before that really put a dent in his form. However, he has recovered from that pretty well in the next few tournaments.

This article first appeared on FirstSportz and was syndicated with permission.

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