By Chris Oddo | @TheFanChild | Saturday February 10, 2024
Tommy Paul leveled his rivalry with Ben Shelton at two apiece, and reached his first ATP final on home soil.
Photo Source: TTV
Tommy Paul struck early and often on Saturday, and needed just 79 minutes to exact some revenge on rising American Ben Shelton, 6-2, 6-4, to reach his fourth ATP final.
Paul and Shelton have played on big stages over the last two years, with the pair getting acquainted in the quarterfinals at last year’s Australian Open (a win for Paul) and then taking their rivalry to the round of 16 at last year’s US Open (a win for Shelton) and then Tokyo (another win for Shelton).
Tommy Paul vs Ben Shelton Past Meetings
Paul d. Shelton 7-6(6), 6-3, 5-7, 6-4 QF at 2023 Australian Open
Shelton d. Paul 6-4, 6-3, 4-6, 6-4 R16 at 2023 US Open
Shelton d. Paul 7-6(4), 6-3 QF Tokyo 2023
Paul d. Shelton 6-2, 6-4 SF Dallas
On Saturday in Dallas it was 15th-ranked Paul who turned the tide. Shelton entered his third match of the week having not surrendered a single break, but Paul ended that streak in the fifth game of the match, and broke again two games later for good measure.
It wasn’t Shelton’s day from the service stripe – or the baseline. He did top out at 146 on the first serve late in the second set, but he was too erratic behind his serve to trouble Paul, who played patient, probing tennis and was clutch when it mattered, saving all three break points he faced.
“These courts kind of help me a little bit,” Paul said, referring to the slower surface in play on the indoor courts in Dallas. “They're not jumping quite as high as some of the other courts we've played on, so kind of kept the ball in my strike zone a little bit more.
"I knew I had to play a lot of balls in the court. That's the key, you can't give him anything or he'll take advantage. I thought I did a really good job of that, didn't serve as well as I'd like to but somehow squeaked out a lot of those service games, so that was huge.”
Paul also did a better job behind his second serve, winning 64 percent of those points, while Shelton only managed 41 percent of his.
Paul, who snapped a six-match losing streak against the Top-20 with his win over 16th-ranked Shelton, will face either Marcos Giron in Sunday’s final, as he bids for his second career ATP title
Giron sparkled in his 6-1, 6-3 takedown of France's Adrian Mannarino. The 30-year-old American has knocked off two of the tournament's Top-4 seeds in his last two rounds.