By Canadian Press

Shelton dominates as seeded players fall at Auckland Classic

Jan 9, 2024 | 8:12 PM

AUCKLAND, New Zealand (AP) — Top-seeded American Ben Shelton bucked a trend when he beat Fabian Marozsan 6-3, 6-4 on Wednesday to reach the quarterfinals of the ATP Auckland Classic.

The tournament has been notable so far for the attrition rate among seeds and other leading players.

Fifth-seeded Chris Eubanks went out in the first round as did Gael Monfils — who lost to Marozsan — Roberto Bautista Agut, Denis Shapovalov and defending champion Richard Gasquet.

Third-seeded Francisco Cerundolo, fourth-seeded Felix Auger-Aliassime of Montreal, seventh-seeded Sebastian Ofner and eighth-seeded Max Purcell all lost in the second round.

Shelton had a few shaky moments early, dropping serve in the opening game of the match, then struggling to hold in the third game which contained 12 points and four deuces.

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From then on the hard-serving 21-year-old was mostly in control. He won points with a whipping forehand from the baseline or, most often, followed his powerful serve and dominated at the net.

Shelton took the second set with a single break in the fifth game. But he controlled the set much more than that suggested, serving six aces and putting more than 80% of first serves in play, giving Marozsan few openings.

Shelton was wary of Marozsan, who beat Carlos Alcaraz in straight sets at the Italian Open last year.

“It was definitely a tough match playing against Fabian,” he said. “I had a tough one against him last year in a challenger and (he) beat the No. 1 player in the world on arguably his favourite surface last year so it was cool to have a matchup against him.”

Daniel Altmeier of Germany beat Auger-Aliassime 7-6 (9), 7-5 in a match which started in hot conditions at midday and stretched over 2 hours, 34 minutes.

Altmeier had an early break in the first set but Auger-Aliassime broke back and there was nothing between the players until Altmeier took the set at the end of a long tiebreaker.

The close contest continued and Altmeier saved eight of nine break points and converted two of four, including a crucial chance at 6-5 in the second set.

“It was an awesome match,” Altmeier said. “It was a high quality of battle, I think, for this early in the season, playing two sets of tennis under the sun, 2 hours and 40 minutes. It was a real grind so I think it was a really high quality match of high competition.”

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AP tennis: https://apnews.com/hub/tennis

The Associated Press