{"id":2793,"date":"2026-09-14T14:30:58","date_gmt":"2026-09-14T14:30:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/?p=2793"},"modified":"2026-09-14T14:30:58","modified_gmt":"2026-09-14T14:30:58","slug":"ben-shelton-argues-stupid-rule-must-change-after-what-alexander-zverev-did-in-us-open-final","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/?p=2793","title":{"rendered":"Ben Shelton argues \u2018stupid\u2019 rule must change after what Alexander Zverev did in US Open final"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ben Shelton<\/a> has described a tennis rule as \u201cstupid\u201d and called for a change after his defeat to Alexander Zverev in the 2026 US Open final.<\/p>\n

The No 8 seed was beaten 6-3, 7-6(2), 5-7, 6-2 by top seed Zverev in the championship match in New York on Sunday.<\/p>\n

Shelton<\/a>, who was playing his first-ever Grand Slam final, now holds a 0-6 record against Zverev.<\/p>\n

Zverev\u2019s high number of ball bounces before serving was a talking point during the US Open<\/a>, and Shelton was asked if it was hard to deal with the German\u2019s service rhythm.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think there\u2019s not an athlete in the world that you\u2019re going to look and watch them do their thing and they\u2019re going to sit in a ready position for 30 seconds before the play starts,\u201d the 23-year-old American said in his post-match press conference.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo for me it\u2019s the same. I\u2019m not going to sit there in a ready position with my knees bent, tension in my body for 30 seconds while I\u2019m waiting.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m going to try to stay loose, and you know, I\u2019ll let him do his thing when he\u2019s up there, but I\u2019m not going to sit there, be locked in, focused, in a ready position for that long.\u201d<\/p>\n

More Tennis News<\/h2>\n

ATP Rankings: Zverev eats away at Sinner\u2019s lead, Shelton & Tiafoe crack highs, Djokovic exits top 10, Khachanov +24<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

\u2018Time to get rid of him\u2019 \u2013 John McEnroe savaged over response to Alexander Zverev\u2019s US Open win<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Want more from Tennis365? Add us as a preferred source on Google to your favourites list<\/a> for tennis coverage you can trust.<\/strong><\/p>\n

At one point during the final, chair umpire Marijana Veljovic told Shelton to take up his return position earlier.<\/p>\n

\u201c[The umpire] was telling me I needed to get to the line earlier, and I was like, \u2018he can start his routine whenever he wants. I promise you there will never be a time where he serves and I\u2019m not ready\u2019,\u201d Shelton explained.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut I shouldn\u2019t have to sit at the line. If he\u2019s bouncing the ball 20 to 25 times, I shouldn\u2019t have to just sit there for that. He should be able to start it. He never does less than 10 bounces. I\u2019m always going to be ready when he\u2019s ready to serve.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think that that is a stupid rule, that you gotta be sitting there if it\u2019s a guy who has his routine. As long as you\u2019re ready when he puts his hands together and starts bouncing the ball, that\u2019s what should matter.\u201d<\/p>\n

Asked if there should be a rule change, Shelton said: \u201cI definitely think, for a first serve, you can do whatever you want. You can use the full 25 seconds every time.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think that there should be some sort of rule \u2014 I\u2019m not sure exactly how you would do it \u2014 limiting time on second serve. You shouldn\u2019t have unlimited time.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think for our sport, for the fans, I think it\u2019s tough to be sitting there that long [waiting] for the next play, the next action to happen.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m sure at some point, it\u2019ll be something that these tournaments look at, just because there is such a delay in play in some matches.\u201d<\/p>\n

READ NEXT: John McEnroe calls for rule change after what Alexander Zverev did during US Open final<\/a>
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n

The post Ben Shelton argues \u2018stupid\u2019 rule must change after what Alexander Zverev did in US Open final<\/a> appeared first on Tennis365<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ben Shelton has described a tennis rule as \u201cstupid\u201d and called for a change after his defeat to Alexander Zverev in the 2026 US Open final. The No 8 seed was beaten 6-3, 7-6(2), 5-7, 6-2 by top seed Zverev in the championship match in New York on Sunday. Shelton, who was playing his first-ever […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2793","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2793","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2793"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2793\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2793"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2793"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2793"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}