Holger Rune and Ben Shelton will face each other in the first round of the 2023 Mexican Open on Monday, February 28.
Follow Us
After exceeding his own expectations the year before, Holger Rune had high goals for himself to achieve in 2023. He hasn’t, however, gotten off to the kind of start he needed to meet his objectives for the year. “I have not made plans for 2023 yet. But I know what I want. I want to win slams. I won an ATP 250, reached an ATP 500 final, and won a Masters 1000. It’s time for a Slam win,” he said. The gifted Dane has not only failed to post a noteworthy performance this year but has also suffered demoralising defeats in nearly all of his appearances over the past two months. He had to retire from his most recent match against Gijs Brouwer in Rotterdam after losing from a set up to Yoshihito Nishioka and blowing a sizable lead against Andrey Rublev in Australia last month. A few weeks ago, he was edged out in three close sets in Montpellier by Maxime Cressy.
Despite having three fewer victories than Holger Rune this year, Ben Shelton has outperformed all expectations and will be going into his remaining matches with a lot of confidence. Last month in Auckland, he earned his first victory outside of the USA, and he went on to the Australian Open quarterfinals. The American left-hander, who was outside the top 500 at this time last year, is now ranked at a career-high #41 and is receiving direct entries into tour-level events as a result of his outstanding performance on the Challenger circuits in the second half of 2022 and a strong start to 2023.
| Holger Rune vs Ben Shelton | Match details |
|---|---|
| Date | February 28, 2023 |
| Surface | Hard |
| Tournament | Mexican Open |
| Stage | Round of 32 |
| Time (India) | 7 am |
| Time (Dubai) | 7:30 pm (Feb 27) |
| Opponent | Score |
|---|---|
| Gijs Brouwer | Walkover (L) |
| Constant Lestienne | 6-4, 6-4 (W) |
| Maxime Cressy | 5-7, 7-6, 6-7 (L) |
| Gregoire Barrere | 7-6, 7-6 (W) |
| Marc-Andrea Huesler | 7-6, 6-2 (W) |
| Opponent | Score |
|---|---|
| Marcos Giron | 4-6, 4-6 (L) |
| Tommy Paul | 6-7, 3-6, 7-5, 4-6 (L) |
| JJ Wolf | 6-7, 6-2, 6-7, 7-6, 6-2 (W) |
| Alexei Popyrin | 6-3, 7-6, 6-4 (W) |
| Nicolas Jarry | 7-6, 7-6, 7-5 (W) |
0-0. Ben Shelton should not stand a chance against Holger Rune if he plays to the best of his ability; however, it remains to be seen whether he has fully recovered from the injury he suffered in Rotterdam.
Holger Rune and Ben Shelton will face each other in the first round of the 2023 Mexican Open on Monday, February 28.
Australia – beIN Sports
Canada – TSN
India – Tennis TV
UK- Amazon Prime Video
USA – Tennis Channel
All ATP and WTA Tour level matches can be viewed on demand on the Tennis TV website and app.
