"Mixing personal relationships with professional endeavors is rarely a good idea" - Fans react as Ben Shelton crashes out in Monte-Carlo opener

Ben Shelton suffered an opening-round exit at the ongoing Monte-Carlo Masters. The American who was seeded 11th in the tournament, lost to Alejandro Davidovich Fokina despite taking the opening set.

Shelton trailed 2-4 in the opening set but bounced back and eventually took it via a tiebreak. However, Davidovich Fokina staged a remarkable comeback and dominated the next two sets to register a 6-7(2), 6-2, 6-1 victory and progress to the second round of the Monte-Carlo Masters.

The Spaniard also maintained his 100% win record against Ben Shelton, having previously beaten him 7-6(4), 5-7, 6-3 in the first round of the Paris Masters in 2023. He will next face either Tomas Martin Etcheverry or Corentin Moutet in the second round of the Monte-Carlo Masters.

Fans reacted to Ben Shelton's defeat, with one claiming that he cannot have his father as his coach if he wants to improve.

"Shelton will not improve until he gets a coach who is not his father. Mixing personal relationships with professional endeavors is rarely a good idea," the fan said.

One fan spoke about Shelton's game on clay, stating:

"Probably cause it's clay and he has no other tools lol."

Another fan took a dig at Ben Shelton's behavior after the match's opening set, commenting:

"Good to see Ben lose after his disrespectful behaviour following the first set."

Here are some more reactions to Shelton's defeat in Monte-Carlo:

"Is Shelton the most overrated player to play professional tennis ?" one fan said.

"All these TikTok exagerated celebrations from Shelton made him a joke when you check the scoreboard," a fan stated.

"American male singles players are currently the weakest contenders to win any tournament," another fan remarked.

Ben Shelton has now tasted defeat in each of his last three matches. The 22-year-old now has ten wins out of 17 matches so far in the 2025 season, with his best performance being reaching the semifinals of the Australian Open.

Ben Shelton yet to win a match at the Monte-Carlo Masters

Shelton in action at the Monte-Carlo Masters (Image Source: Getty)

Ben Shelton's defeat to Alejandro Davidovich Fokina means that he is yet to register a victory from two appearances at the Monte-Carlo Masters. He made his debut at the tournament in 2023 and suffered a 1-6, 6-3, 3-6 defeat to Grigor Dimitrov. The American missed the tournament in 2024.

All-in-all, Shelton has a pretty disappointing record at Masters 1000 events on clay so far in his career, amassing just two wins out of six matches. His best performance was third-round runs in Madrid and Rome last year.

The World No. 14 is next scheduled to compete at the BMW Open in Munich, where he is the third seed. This will be his very first appearance at the tournament, that has been upgraded to the ATP 500 level, and he will be joined by some quality players. These include top seed Alexander Zverev, second seed Taylor Fritz and fourth seed Felix Auger-Aliassime, among others.