NCAA champion Ben Shelton shares an embrace with his coach and father, Bryan, after winning the 2022 NCAA singles championship Saturday at Champaign, Ill.
'Just Too Good'
Saturday, May 28, 2022 | Men's Tennis, Chris Harry
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By: Chris Harry, Senior Writer
GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Ben Shelton not only had shaken his first-set struggles but taken command of his match Saturday against August Holmgren for the NCAA men's singles championship in Champaign, Ill. Apparently, Holmgren sensed as much. Enough to feel compelled to let his opponent know in the match's waning moments.
Shelton, the University of Florida sophomore and second-ranked player in the country, had a two-game lead over the sixth-ranked Holmgren, the fifth-year senior from Denmark and the two-time West Coast Conference Player of the Year, in the decisive third set. Holmgren trailed 4-2 in the match and 30-15 in the set's seventh game when he charged the net and deftly placed a drop shot just across the net. Shelton, though, not only raced and reached the ball for a return attempt, but ripped a lefty — and positively nasty — back-hand winner across the court, defying what appeared to be an impossible angle and tight landing area.
Holmgren watched the shot then just stood at the net, looking in Shelton's direction. He kept looking.
When Shelton reached the baseline he turned and saw Holmgren still standing at the net giving him what easily could've been interpreted as the stink-eye.
"Why you staring me down?" Shelton shouted across the court.
"It was just too good," Holmgren answered back. "Just too good."
And that description doubled as the story of Shelton's performance during the second and third sets. What happened in Set 1 shook up Shelton enough to unleash some of his best tennis of the 2022 season. Make no mistake. Shelton's 4-6, 6-3, 6-2 victory over Holmgren did not erase the disappointment of the second-ranked Gators crushing loss last week to eventual champion Virginia in the quarterfinals of the NCAA team competition, a defeat that denied UF a shot at a second straight national title.
But it definitely helped.
"It's a nice consolation prize," said Shelton, who joined Mark Merklein (1994), Jeff Morrison (1999) and teammate Sam Riffice (2021) as the only players in the program's 90-year history to win the NCAA singles crown. "Happy to go out with a bang."
In the bigger singles picture, it was a bang-bang. Shelton gave the Gators a second straight NCAA champion, just a day after Riffice, the UF captain, fell shy of his shot at a repeat singles crown by losing in the tournament semifinals one match shy of facing Shelton. An All-Florida showdown didn't materialize, so UF coach Bryan Shelton instead got to lock in on just one of his players in a match for the hardware.
This one happened to be his son.
Remember, it was a year ago that Ben Shelton, then a freshman, clinched the the program's first NCAA title in the team competition from his place on Court 5. His 2021 season ended that night in a celebratory embrace with his father and teammates.
The younger Shelton did not qualify for last year's singles draw, but instead watched Riffice roll to the title. Not once, when watching on Riffice roll last May, did he envision himself in that very same place a year later.
"I made steady improvement over the year, but I never really was thinking about it, being in this position," Shelton said. "It was one of my goals, but until you are in the moment you can't really imagine. Then it hits you."
Something hit Shelton early in Saturday's match. Specifically, Holmgren's terrific play in the first set. Holmgren had Shelton confused and on the defensive.
"He surprised me," Shelton said. "He was hitting it long and hard and through the court, and I didn't think that would be the case. He took advantage and was being aggressive. I had to dig a little deeper and find a better top-end game those last two sets."
From the sidelines, father expected to see a different version of son after the way he was sliced up in that first set.
"I think when his back is up against the wall, then he realizes he can't play at 60 or 70 percent," Bryan Shelton said. "He just shifted gears and the other guy just couldn't keep up after that. It was a level I hadn't seen from Ben very often this season."
After knotting the match at a set a piece, Shelton set the tone in the third set by breaking Holmgren in the first game, then holding in the second to go up 2-0. The next break came the game after Shelton ripped that cross-court shot that left Holmgren at a standstill.
"He was just in disbelief," Shelton said.
Sort of like Shelton was the day before against Tennessee's third-ranked Adam Walton when — a higher power willing — he charged the net, only to stumble and lose his footing and fall to the court. Basically defenseless and from his back side, Shelton snuck his racquet up above the net and, somehow, executed a perfect (maybe even perfectly lucky) drop shot in a huge late, momentum-swinging play in that one (see below tweet). It was that kind of week for the Gators' standout.
"That was insane," Shelton said. "A lot of people have asked about it. I don't know how I fell and slipped, but it all worked out."
In more ways that one. Yes, Shelton gladly would trade raising this trophy by himself for having raised it with his UF teammates a week ago, but as far as season-ending outcomes this was the next-best-thing for program. And certainly for the Shelton household.
The coach was asked about his pride quotient after seeing Ben making more Florida history.
"Oh goodness," Bryan said. "When they say, 'My cup overfloweth,' it's one of those things. I keep wondering how many good things can keep happening. I know I shouldn't be asking those questions, but we've been blessed over and over again."
Might even say it's been just too good. Just too good.
