Shang Battles Past Shelton In All-#NextGenATP Washington Clash

Two weeks, two wins for Shang Juncheng against Ben Shelton.

In a battle of #NextGenATP stars, 18-year-old Shang defeated home favourite Shelton 6-2, 3-6, 6-3 on Tuesday to reach the third round of the Mubadala Citi DC Open.

“I’m definitely very happy right now,” Shang told ATPTour.com. “Ben is not an easy player to beat. I think I’ve got a game that kind of suits me to playing him.”

Last week, Shang eliminated Shelton 6-4, 6-4 at the Atlanta Open. One week later, he broke his opponent’s serve five times from nine chances to triumph in three sets after one hour and 42 minutes.

“I’ve got a great return I think and in the past two weeks, I’ve been returning really well. So I think that was the key today, to break a few service games from him,” Shang said. “Overall, I’m playing very confident and I’m just very patient on court and fighting for each point.”

It was the Chinese teen’s fourth win in as many days in Washington, where he won two qualifying rounds over the weekend before ousting Emilio Gomez in the first round on Monday.

The timing for Shang’s success is good, because next Monday he will drop 80 Pepperstone ATP Rankings points he earned by winning the Lexington ATP Challenger Tour event last year. He is at a career-high World No. 149. Shang will next play second seed Frances Tiafoe or Aslan Karatsev.

In other action, fifth seed Grigor Dimitrov earned his place in the third round with a 7-6(6), 6-2 victory over Mackenzie McDonald. The 2017 Nitto ATP Finals champion is competing in Washington for the eighth time and in 2013 advanced to the quarter-finals.

Australian Thanasi Kokkinakis also moved on with a 2-6, 6-4, 6-4 win against Japan’s Taro Daniel. Another Japanese player, lucky loser Sho Shimabukuro, claimed his first ATP Tour victory with a 6-4, 6-3 triumph over South African Lloyd Harris.