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Ben Shelton explains what stood out in his hard-fought win over Adrian Mannarino

Originally posted on HITC | By Callum Davies | Last updated Feb 14, 2026 2:55 PM ET

Ben Shelton has now reached the quarterfinals in every tournament he’s entered this season, including his latest run at the Dallas Open.

His latest win, though, didn’t come easily. He had to dig deep to get past Adrian Mannarino in three sets.

Shelton and Mannarino have a bit of history. Their most recent meeting before this ended with Shelton retiring due to injury at the US Open.

Mannarino made it interesting by taking the second set, but Shelton managed to hold his nerve in the third and close it out.

Afterwards, Shelton spoke highly of Mannarino’s game and experience.

Ben Shelton speaks out after reaching Dallas Open quarter-finals

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Afterwards, speaking on court to ATP Media, he summed up the contest with a simple two-word verdict: “Ridiculous tennis.”

He went on to add: “I knew it would be a tough battle. I think Adrian (Mannarino) played at an extremely high level, as he always does against me. We’ve played incredible matches against each other, and in the last one, I got injured against him at the US Open.

“It was undoubtedly a dogfight. He does a lot of things that make the game very, very difficult. Especially when you play against him on an indoor court where the bounce is quite slow.”

Shelton has also spoken recently about an area of his game that he’s trying to sharpen up.

Ben Shelton has been a model of consistency to start the 2026 season

As mentioned earlier, Shelton has been a picture of consistency to begin the 2026 season, making it through to the quarterfinals in each of his first three events.

While his Brisbane run wasn’t headline-grabbing, there’s no shame in losing to Jannik Sinner at that stage of the Australian Open.

Still, it did extend his losing streak against Sinner to nine matches. If he wants to break into that top tier, some adjustments are definitely needed.

He now faces Miomir Kecmanović in the Dallas quarterfinals with a chance to move into the semifinals.

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

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