Ben Shelton laughs at ‘quarterbacker’ question at Wimbledon, shouts out Trinity Rodman

“I’m not sure many people in the crowd know what that is,” Shelton said. “They use that brown, oval shaped ball, sometimes they kick it between the uprights. But no, yeah, I grew up playing quarterback or a quarterbacker, either way. And probably the only thing that’s a great correlation with tennis is the serve, as you guys can probably see. And so, yeah, that’s kind of the one thing that I took from football onto the tennis court. 

“Obviously, I’ve always loved athletics, playing a team sport, something bigger than yourself. Now I’m obviously playing an individual sport, but I still have a team supporting me that I work with every day. So that’s the most important thing to me, I don’t want to be out here by myself, I want to be doing it with people that I love and I got a lot of people that I love over there.”

Shelton looked towards the crowd and noted people he loved, including family, his coaches and girlfriend Trinity Rodman, who was in attendance. Rodman, a former Washington State soccer standout, is currently a member of the United States National Team. She scored three goals last year during the 2024 Paris Olympics, helping Team USA win gold.

Shelton’s still looking for his first professional tournament win and has a career record of 93-67. He’s currently ranked No. 10 in the world as reflected by his Wimbledon seeding.

A native of Atlanta, Georgia, Shelton switched focus from football to tennis around the time he was a teenager. Eventually, he made his way to Florida where he helped the Gators win the SEC Tournament Championship, won the 2022 NCAA Singles Championship and was named SEC and National Player of the Year.