Ben Shelton is trying to rewrite history at the 2026 BMW Open

Ben Shelton is quietly having a great start to his clay court season. He won his first ATP doubles title at the US Men’s Clay Court Championship with his Florida Gators teammate Andres Andrade.

He is a finalist for the second straight year at the BMW Open. No American man has won this tournament since Ivan Lendl in 1993. Besides Shelton, Taylor Fritz, the 2024 finalist, is the only other player to come close.

Europeans have dominated this tournament since its inception in 1899. Budge Patty was a three-time champion in the 1950s, and Sandy Mayer won in 1973.

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Can Shelton become the fourth American champion ever at BMW Open?

Shelton is playing an inspired Flavio Cobolli who channeled a personal tragedy of losing a friend from home this week to play the best tennis of his career against Alexander Zverev in the semifinals.

Defeating the hometown favorite and three-time champion Zverev is no small task. Cobolli broke down in tears after the win.

This will be an entertaining final with Cobolli chasing his own history. No Italian player has won the tournament since Martin Mulligan in 1968. (Mulligan competed for Australia through 1967 but switched to Italy from 1968 until his retirement in 1975.)

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Winner gets a BMW

The WTA players at the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix are not the only ones competing for a car. Either Shelton or Cobolli will win an all-electric BMW iX3.

Shelton leads the head-to-head 3-2, but Cobolli won their only meeting on clay in 2024 at Geneva.

Watch the BMW Open final on Sunday, April 19 at 7:30 AM EDT on Tennis Channel.