Shelton dominates as seeded players fall at Auckland Classic

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.

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.” AP tennis:.