Ben Shelton was shocked in his opening match against World No. 87 Dino Prižmić in the 2026 Madrid Open. The American big server, who came to Madrid after winning the BMW Open in Munich, lost the match in three sets.
Prizmic won the first set 6-4. The second set was much more competitive, where Shelton prevailed 7-6 (4) in the tiebreak. Prizmic returned to win the third set and essentially the match in the tiebreak. Most importantly, Shelton was unable to break Prizmic’s serve even once in the match.
Madrid R1: [Q] D. Prizmic def. B. Shelton 6-4, 6-7 (4) 7-6 (5)
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Fans slammed Shelton following his shock loss exit in Madrid.
“Shelton is just a mediocre one dimensional player I don’t think he will ever be an elite contender,” one fan wrote.
“Shelton’s returning is legit terrible how are you getting 0 break points on clay vs. a mid-tier server lol. In general I think the lower standard of returning is a huge reason for the “more depth than ever” discourse more serve domination = more upsets and guys like Shelton always leave that door open,” one fan commented.
“Shelton is just an anomaly. He’s ranked #6 but he’s #66 in the ATP’s return leaderboard,” another fan added.
“There’s really no excuse for it at this point. He claims he’s worked on returning but the results are not there. In fact it’s looked worse lately. His dad obviously isn’t the one to improve it, if he’s even prioritizing that. Maybe he’s just living proof that returning cannot be improved, and it’s probably why he can’t be a top 4 player,” one fan wrote.
“Absolutely disgusting returns,” one fan reacted.
“Shelton is on a 3 match losing streak at masters events while simultaneously on a 10 match winning streak at 500 events 😭” another remarked.
Ben Shelton’s Win Streak Snapped By Dino Prizmic
Ben Shelton’s five-match win streak came to an end on Friday after he lost in the opening match of the Madrid Open.
Prizmic won 70.6% of his service points (77 of 109) and never gave a break opportunity to Shelton. While the American had twice as many aces (10-5) and even more winners (44-31), he dominated on the wrong side of stats, with his 44 unforced errors.
Shelton saved five of six break points, but the first break point he lost in the first set proved to be the difference.
Shelton will now hope to do well in Rome after coming up short in Madrid.
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