Dialed in: Ben Shelton advances to US Open semifinals

NEW YORK — For anyone who saw the end of Tuesday’s U.S. Open men’s quarterfinals, you may be wondering why Ben Shelton held his hand like a phone.

It turns out the 20-year-old American, who admittedly held one in his parents’ home growing up, gave it as a signal to his track and field friends who train at the University of Florida.

“Our home phone, when I was growing up in Atlanta, was one like that,” he said in a post-match news conference. “For me it’s like I’m saying ‘I’m dialed in.’

“Grant Holloway, that’s kind of his signature thing … he just won the (110-meter hurdles) world championship so, congrats to him, I just gave him a little shout out.”

Shelton, the son of Huntsville native Bryan Shelton, had his game dialed in with a thrilling 6-2, 3-6, 7-6(7), 6-2 victory over 10th-seeded Frances Tiafoe of France.

“The greatest moment on the tennis court in my life and I’m in a lot of pain,” he said in the news conference.

Ben’s dad Bryan attended Randolph School in Huntsville and won the Alabama High School Athletic Association singles championship as a senior in 1984. He played collegiately for Georgia Tech from 1985-88, and played professionally from 1989-97.

Shelton coached the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets women’s tennis team, which won the NCAA Championship in 2007. He went on to head the Florida men’s tennis team and coached the Gators to the 2021 NCAA Championship.

He is the only head coach to have won a national championship in men’s and women’s NCAA Division I tennis.

Now, son Ben heads for the biggest moment on perhaps the biggest stage in tennis. He will face 36-year-old Novak Djokovic, the three-time US Open winner, in Friday’s semifinals.

“Definitely a tough challenge … you know how rock solid the guy is,” Shelton said. “It’s something I have to game plan for. It’s an advantage for my style playing someone who has never played me before.

“I’ll try to bring some things to the table that are different and disrupt him.”