Ben Shelton reveals precisely what he advised chair umpire at Wimbledon after 2R match was controversially suspended

Ben Shelton dealt with a controversial call from the umpire, as his second-round match against Rinky Hijikata was suspended due to bad lighting. The American was leading 5-4 in the third set of the match and was just one game away before the umpire called off the play at 09:29 PM BST on Thursday, June 3.

The tournament is already enforcing a curfew at 11 pm, but that did not apply in the case of Shelton. He fumed at the unfair decision and had a heated exchange with the umpire as the tournament supervisor entered the court to calm him down.

On Friday, he wrapped up the match in about 70 seconds by serving out three aces and an unreturned second serve to win the sixth game. Breezing past his Aussie opponent 6-2, 7-5, 6-4, he booked himself a spot at the third round of the tournament. However, revealed what he told the umpire when they suspended his match the other night, at the post-match press conference.

“He said there was a 5 minute warning til Hawkeye was going down & that was including the changeover. So there wouldn’t be enough time to complete the game. I told him ‘I only need 60 seconds’,” said the 22-year-old.

Ben Shelton is known for his speedy serves and even recorded a 159 MPH serve earlier this year at the Dallas Open.

Ben Shelton apologizes to his fans after 2R win

Ben Shelton humorously addressed Wimbledon organisers’ mistake as he apologised to the Friday crowd at Court Two for his short-lived match.

“Sorry you guys didn’t really get to see much tennis. I was hoping to maybe hit a few groundstrokes today, I might have to go to the practice courts. Overall I couldn’t be more happy being in the third round of Wimbledon,” he candidly admitted during the on-court interaction.

Even though he finished his match in over a minute, he still expressed his sadness at not being able to serve out four aces.

“Hope to improve on [that] in the next round. For me, obviously you come out, you’re serving for the match, the nerves are there a little bit. To hit three aces and take the pressure off myself, I couldn’t be happier with what I came out and did,” he added.

This was, according to him, the third or fourth occasion in his tenure at Wimbledon that his match was split over two days. He will meet qualifier Marton Fucsovics in his next round, who is coming after defeating Gael Monfils in a five-set thriller.