Defending singles champion Shelton pulls double duty in Tokyo

p a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/ben-shelton/s0s1/overview'Ben Shelton/a can't stop winning at the a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/tournaments/tokyo/329/overview'Kinoshita Group Japan Open Tennis Championships/a.nbsp;/p

pShelton moved to 7-0 in singles on Friday in Tokyo where he overcame a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/mariano-navone/n0bs/overview'Mariano Navone/a 6-4, 6-3 to reach the quarter-finals, before advancing to the same stage in doubles alongside a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/jordan-thompson/tc61/overview'Jordan Thompson/a. /p

pThe eighth seed converted three of the five break points he earned against Navone as he continued his bid to be the first player to defend the Tokyo title since a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/pete-sampras/s402/overview'Pete Sampras/a in 1993-94. /p

p ldquo;I thought Mariano [Navone] was playing really well today and made things difficult,rdquo; Shelton said in his post-match interview after clinching his 35th win of the season. ldquo;It was a great match, a different feel compared to my first round, I feel like Irsquo;m really coming into form here. /p

p ldquo;I thought I did a great job adjusting today, the ball was bouncing much lower and although this is my seventh singles match in Tokyo, it was the first time I played with the roof closed. Therersquo;s always going to be new challenges and weather issues. Wersquo;re lucky we have a roof here and wersquo;re not sitting around waiting for the weather to clear up.rdquo; /p

p /p

p The 21-year-old Shelton saved three of four break points against him, according to Infosys ATP Stats, as he closed out the match in 86 minutes. The No. 17 in the PIF ATP Rankings next faces #NextGen ATP talent a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/arthur-fils/f0f1/overview'Arthur Fils/a. /p

p The Frenchman progressed after a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/matteo-berrettini/bk40/overview'Matteo Berrettini/a retired due to injury when leading the pair's maiden Lexus ATP Head2Head clash 7-6(5). The 20-year-old Fils upset top seed a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/taylor-fritz/fb98/overview'Taylor Fritz/a earlier in the week to extend his lead at the top of the PIF ATP Live Race to Jeddah. /p

p span class="ui-provider ec bcb bcc bcd bce bcf bcg bch bci bcj bck bcl bcm bcn bco bcp bcq bcr bcs bct bcu bcv bcw bcx bcy bcz bda bdb bdc bdd bde bdf bdg bdh bdi" dir="ltr" style="color: #000000;"Shelton later teamed with a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/tournaments/us-open/560/overview'US Open/a doubles champion and fellow Top 30 singles star Thompson, to seal a second success Friday. The pairnbsp;/spandefeated Japanese wild card duo a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/yoshihito-nishioka/n732/overview'Yoshihito Nishioka/a and a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/kaito-uesugi/u174/overview'Kaito Uesugi/a 7-6(3), 6-2 to make the quarter-finals. /p

nbsp;

blockquote class="twitter-tweet"

p lang="en" dir="ltr"A duo bringing all the fun ⚡️br /

br /

Shelton ???? Thompsona href="https://twitter.com/japanopentennis?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw"@japanopentennis/a | a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/kinoshitajapanopen?src=hashamp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw"#kinoshitajapanopen/a a href="https://t.co/oBpZVoyg6T"pic.twitter.com/oBpZVoyg6T/a/p

mdash; ATP Tour (@atptour) a href="https://twitter.com/atptour/status/1839587751521345750?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw"September 27, 2024/a/blockquote

script async="" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"/script

pShelton and Thompson converted four of their six break points to set up a quarter-final clash with British pair a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/julian-cash/ci96/overview'Julian Cash/a and a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/lloyd-glasspool/gd08/overview'Lloyd Glasspool/a. /p

p #NextGen ATP talent a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/alex-michelsen/m0qi/overview'Alex Michelsen/a and a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/alejandro-tabilo/te30/overview'Alejandro Tabilo/a also progressed in the doubles draw, battling past a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/luciano-darderi/d0fj/overview'Luciano Darderi/a and a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/tomas-martin-etcheverry/ea24/overview'Tomas Martin Etcheverry/a 6-3, 6-7(5), 10-7. They will next face a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/rinky-hijikata/h0bh/overview'Rinky Hijikata/a and a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/alexei-popyrin/p09z/overview'Alexei Popyrin/a or a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/hugo-nys/n670/overview'Hugo Nys/a and a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/jan-zielinski/z423/overview'Jan Zielinski/a. /p

p /p

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