Shelton cruises through Dallas opener, Ruud battles past Duckworth

Ben Shelton cruised through his first-round matchup against Aleksandar Vukic at the Dallas Open in straight sets, with Casper Ruud joining him in the last 16 on Tuesday.

Shelton – who achieved his joint-best grand slam result when reaching the Australian Open semi-finals last month – needed just 63 minutes to record a 6-3 6-3 win over Vukic.

The home favourite, who is in a career-high ATP ranking of 13th and is seeded fourth in Texas, will face China's Buyunchaokete or Spain's Jaume Munar in the round of 16.

Shelton believes the victory will do wonders for his confidence, saying: "He obviously is a guy who is a great server.

"Actually, I beat him in my match to make the Top 100 and he bagelled me in the first set that match. so it's not an easy matchup.

"To break him three times is something I take a lot of confidence from and moving forward into the rest of the tournament, I'm feeling really confident."

All business @BenShelton blasts by Vukic 6-3, 6-3 to start his Dallas campaign with a W.@DALOpenTennis | #DALOpen pic.twitter.com/hcMT8lZlt9
— ATP Tour (@atptour) February 5, 2025

Ruud faced more of a challenge against lucky loser James Duckworth, eventually battling to a 7-5 4-6 6-3 victory.

The second seed gave up 11 break points in a scrappy affair but saved 10 of those, also recovering from 0-40 down in two separate service games in the deciding set.

He will face Roberto Carballes Baena or qualifier Michael Mmoh in the next round.

Data Debrief: Shelton shines on serve

Coming up against a big server in Vukic, Shelton needed to hold firm on his own serve, and he did precisely that.

While Shelton only served four aces, he dictated his own service games and won a whopping 90% of first-serve points, not allowing Vukic a single opportunity for a break.