Ben Shelton knocked out in Round of 64 at Miami Open

Ben Shelton suffered his second upset loss of March on Saturday, falling 6-7(3), 7-6(3), 6-3 to Alexander Shevchenko in the Miami Open Round of 64.

Shelton dominated the tiebreak to claim the first set and was two points away from 2-0 victory in the second. He led Shevchenko by a point on return while leading the second set 5-4, but his serve started to slip at that point. Shelton finished the match with a 58% win rate on second serve. Shevchenko lost just one point in his final two service games.

After winning the Dallas Open Championship on Feb. 15, Shelton has gone 1-2 in ATP 1000 events. He fell at the Paribas Open (Indian Wells) to Learner Tien in the Round of 32 before dropping his first match of the Miami Open. Shelton revealed that he was battling the flu during the Paribas Open but said he was feeling healthy coming into Miami.

Claiming all 500 points in Dallas has helped him stay inside the top 10, but it remains a disappointing finish to the American hard-court season, which is historically Shelton’s best surface.

The spring clay-court season is up next. Shelton is scheduled to participate in the Fayez Sarofim & Co. U.S. Men’s Clay Court Championship — an ATP 250 event — which starts on March 30 in Houston, Texas. Then, the former Florida Gator heads to the BMW Open by Bitpanda on April 13 in Munich — an ATP 500 event — in preparation for the next Mutua Madrid Open (1,000) in Spain on April 22. Shelton is one of several Americans not signed up for the Rolex Monte-Carlo Masters (1,000) on April 5 in Monaco.

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This article originally appeared on Gators Wire: Florida tennis Ben Shelton loses first match at Miami Open