Ben Shelton involved in a verbal spat post-match at Monte-Carlo Masters while playing doubles

Ben Shelton was involved in a verbal confrontation while playing doubles at the 2025 Monte-Carlo Masters. The incident occurred while the American partnered with Rohan Bopanna and faced off against the third-seeded Italian pair of Simone Bolelli and Andrea Vavassori.

Shelton and Bopanna have partnered up for the first time in their respective careers. While Shelton is mostly a singles star with no doubles titles as of yet, Bopanna is a doubles veteran with a Grand Slam title at last year's Australian Open. The Indian is also a former doubles champion in Monte-Carlo, when he won the tournament in 2017 while partnering Pablo Cuevas.

The Indo-American duo entered the match on the back of a 6-3, 7-5 win over the team of Alejandro Tabilo and Francisco Cerundolo, whereas the Italian team had received an opening-round bye. In a match in which the third-seeded pair dominated right from the start, winning the first set 6-2 and taking a 4-1 lead in the second set, Shelton and Bopanna turned it around remarkably. They took the second set to a tiebreaker and won it 7-4 in the breaker.

In the ten-point tiebreaker that enssued, the Indo-American pair took a 4-0 lead, only for the Italians to come storming back to 6-6. However, Shelton and Bopanna kept their composure and knocked out the third seeds by winning the tiebreaker 10-7.

After the match ended, and the two teams came to the net for the customary handshake, Vavassori could be seen complaining to Shelton that the American had hit him during one of the rallies in the first set. In response, the American lifted his shirt and showed similar marks of being hit, claiming that this was a normal occurrence while playing tennis, unlike other sports such as baseball.

"It's tennis.. not baseball..So soft, so sof..Vamos" Shelton could be heard saying on the court

The duo of Shelton and Bopanna will now face either Romain Arneodo and Manuel Guinard or Tomas Machac and Jack Draper in the quarterfinals

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Ben Shelton is out of the singles tournament in Monte-Carlo

In Picture: Ben Shelton (Getty)

Unlike his doubles performance, Ben Shelton's singles journey in Monte-Carlo was short, as he suffered a 6-7(2), 6-2, 6-1 defeat to Alejandro Davidovich Fokina in the very first round while being the 11th seed.

Shelton began the year very well, as he reached his second Grand Slam semifinal at the Australian Open, losing to Jannik Sinner in straight sets. He lost in the early rounds in the next events in Acapulco and Dallas before reaching the quarterfinals in Indian Wells. Shelton followed this with an early exit at the Miami Open.

Ben Shelton does have one title on clay, having won the U.S. Men's Clay Court Championships last year in Houston, winning 7-5, 4-6, 6-3 against compatriot Frances Tiafoe.