Ben Shelton directly said no to the face to the face of an on-court interviewer at the Eisenhower Cup and fans are wondering what happened there, while some guess it was the noises that the interviewer made just before trying to interview the 22-year-old.
On Tuesday night in Indian Wells, the Eisenhower Cup – a Tie-Break Tens event – returned for its 2025 edition.
USA’s Shelton and Emma Navarro, who won the event last year, returned as the defending champion and drew Katie Boulter and Alex de Minaur in their opening match.
But as the match was about the start, an interviewer tried to get some words at the net from the ATP world No. 12 before he was told by the American: “Someone else gotta grab the mic, I’m not talking to you.”
The interviewer tried to play it cool and went to Navarro, who gave him a few words.
Here is the video and judge for yourself.
Ok. What exactly happened here at Tie Break Tens? What is this interviewer going on about with Ben Shelton? Odd. pic.twitter.com/7vRrJE8GVp
— Tennis updates (@Tennissocial123) March 5, 2025
Shelton ripped the media during the Australian Open
At the end of one of his Australian Open press conferences, the 22-year-old unloaded on the media and sounded off on how some were conducting on-court interviews.
In the same presser, the 2023 US Open semifinalist admitted that he also felt uncomfortable about some of the questions or remarks that he received.
“I don’t think that the guy who mocked Novak, I don’t think that was just a single event. I’ve noticed it with different people, not just myself,” Shelton said.
“I noticed it with Learner Tien in one of his matches. I think when he beat [Daniil] Medvedev, his post-match interview, I thought it was kind of embarrassing and disrespectful that interview.
“There are some comments that have been made to me in post-match interviews by a couple of different guys, whether it was, ‘Hey, Monfils is old enough to be your dad. Maybe he is your dad’.
“Or today on the court, ‘Hey Ben, how does it feel that no matter who you play in your next match, no one is going to be cheering for you?’”
Meanwhile, Shelton and Navarro beat Boulter and de Minaur 10-7 but then lost in the Eisenhower Cup semifinal to Taylor Fritz and Elena Rybakina.
Tennis World USA