PARIS (AP) — Ben Shelton played one of the best and most unorthodox shots at the French Open so far when he won a point one-handed after falling flat on his stomach on Friday.
The 13th-seeded American was serving at 3-0, 15-0 in the second set against Italian qualifier Matteo Gigante on Court Simonne-Mathieu.
Gigante looped the service return, and Shelton hit a forehand from behind the baseline, lost his footing and fell onto his stomach. Somehow, he managed to crawl for a few centimeters (inches) and stick out his left arm to get the next ball back over the net and in.
Shelton then jumped to his feet and returned Gigante's big forehand with a two-handed backhand which landed near the Italian's feet. That prompted Gigante to try a volley but it hit the net and gave Shelton the point.
Gigante gave Shelton, who had rushed to the net, a friendly hand check.
Shelton joked about how he made the shot.
“It was because of my lack of good clay court movement I fell on my face, and so that’s why I hit the ball from the ground,” he said. “I wish I could say I dove for that, but I had already fell on my face before the ball was arriving.”
Shelton won the third-round match 6-3, 6-3, 6-4 and was preparing for an on-court interview when he got into more unexpected bother, from an insect.
“Sorry, there was a bee on me,” he said.
The bee came back moments later and Shelton readied his fists as if to box it away.
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AP tennis: https://apnews.com/hub/tennis
Jerome Pugmire, The Associated Press
