Ben Shelton rides the new wave of American clay-court enthusiasm at Roland Garros

This was a pretty amazing atmosphere, honestly. This is the first time that I've come out to a tennis match and had a band playing in the stands on my court, so I think that was pretty special. Ben Shelton, following his first-round Roland Garros win over Frenchman Hugo Gaston

Players tell heroic and even hair-raising tales about having to face the kind of partisan crowd that assembles at Roland Garros whenever a match involving a homegrown talent is in the offing. But for Ben Shelton, his meeting with Gaston, the Toulouse native, the challenge wasn’t just manageable, it was fun.

Imagine! Your very own band welcoming you onto Court 14 at the venerable stade Roland Garros. What’s not to like, never mind that the ersatz marching band, heavy on percussion, and the chanting chorus, were all there to try to pull Gaston—not the curly-headed Shelton—over the finish line first.

“I love these moments,” Shelton, the ebullient 21-year old native of Atlanta, told reporters after his tidy four-set win over No. 88-ranked Gaston. “I enjoy these atmospheres. I got a lot of heckling when I was in college tennis, but today the crowd was just loud, chanting, supporting their countryman. It's something that you love to see.”

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Not too long ago those words coming from the mouth of an American player would have constituted something like heresy. But Shelton is unlike many of his forebears. The DNA is clearly American: robust, straightforward, grounded in a fuse-blowing lefty serve. But Shelton, who will play former US Open finalist Kei Nishikori in the second round Wednesday, doesn’t have the familiar aversion to clay or, for that matter, the challenge of operating in nations that may not have self-pump filling stations or Sonic drive-throughs.

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Shelton appears to have fallen in love with Europe and its clay courts, and the continent seems to be loving him back. That may seem strange, given that Shelton’s first trip abroad was in early 2023, when a direct entry slot in the Australian Open motivated him to go get a passport. Shelton had never even set foot on European red clay until the spring of 2023.

While some of the US players still struggle with clay, the recent burst of enthusiasm for the red dirt shown by quality players like Taylor Fritz, Tommy Paul, and Sebi Korda seems to be running off on younger players, including Shelton and 19-year old Alex Michelson. They are all realizing, in some cases learning, that it doesn’t make sense to fight the clay, to expect it to bend to your will. The surface and all its nuances—along with the ambience at the clay events—are there to be savored.

Besides, the big “secret” to clay-court tennis may be that there is no secret. Referring to her own evolution on red dirt, 2018 Roland Garros semifinalist Madison Keys of the US said at the Madrid Masters: “I think for so long on clay it was that I was constantly trying to change my game to fit clay, versus just playing tennis on clay, you know, making some minor tweaks here or there.”

Keys was able to succeed with that mentality because she moves surprisingly well on clay and can really wallop the ball when the slower surface gives her time to set herself up. Shelton has similar attributes.

In some ways, though, attitude may be even more important than attributes when it comes to the clay game. Shelton’s results on clay have been solid if not spectacular. He won the title (his first on clay) but that was on domestic clay in Houston. On traditional red clay he’s 3-3 (thus far), in four events. It may not sound like much, but it hasn’t exactly sent Shelton into an existential crisis. He’s into the process.

“I love playing here at the French Open,” Shelton said, referring to the atmosphere in his match with Gaston. “It’s a big motivator when you hear the chants and cheers whenever you make an unforced error. But also, there was so much energy for me, which made it awesome.”

He added, “Sometimes it's tough when it's completely silent when you hit a good shot, and they're going nuts every time that you miss, but here it was a little bit more even. Obviously, he had the home field advantage, but I felt some love out there.”

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Shelton had plenty of experience dealing with exuberant and even hostile fans in the two years he spent as a University of Florida Gator, playing for a former pro turned NCAA coach, his father Bryan Shelton. Fans at collegiate meets play rough, and Shelton had a target on his back. Thus, he was more than ready for a few horns and drums Court 13. It will probably seem awfully quiet to him going forward.

“I think playing at Georgia is comparable (to the Court 13 experience),” Shelton said, recalling his collegiate career. “Not because of the noise. Just because the very nasty, choice words that people say to you in the stands. I'd say Georgia, Kentucky, and Tennessee were probably the three worst for me.”

For a connoisseur of fans behaving badly, Court 13 was a piece of cake.