Watch out! Ben Shelton‘s playing style is often described as fiery, powerful, and aggressive, especially with his serve and groundstrokes. The 22-year-old has had an ascent as fiery as his famed 150 miles per hour serves. Considering his incredible power and precision behind his shots, tennis legend Mats Wilander once hailed him as an “extremely dangerous player.” Several players have time and again spoken about how it feels to be in the ‘firing line’ of ‘Big Ben’. But this time, unfortunately, a fan was among the victims of his rocket serves!

Getting the best seat in the house can be troublesome, especially when you’re watching Ben Shelton live! Just a few hours ago, Shelton was taking on Canadian tennis star Gabriel Dialo in the R16 of the 2025 Citi Open. Although he won the match quite comfortably by 6-3,6-2, there was a moment in the match which made the tennis world nervous. On Thursday, during the match, just when Shelton was about to serve, chair umpire Jimmy Pinoargote urged the spectators in the first row to be seated and be alert during the serves.

“Ladies and gentlemen, if you are sitting in the first row, when the players are serving, please pay attention. The ball is coming really fast,” said the umpire. But shortly after this clear and loud message, Shelton fired an ace down the T, which curved and appeared to hit one of the spectator’s legs. The fan got a bit surprised seeing the speed and power behind the serve, and Ben Shelton didn’t waste much time issuing an apology, saying, “Sorry. Are you okay? My bad.”

Ben Shelton was nearly unbeatable on serve in the match as he fired 16 aces while the Canadian hit just 5. Shelton won 86% of total service points, breaking Diallo three times on four chances while not facing a single break point himself. Shortly after the match, Ben Shelton even shared the scary moment of accidentally hitting the fan, on his IG stories with the caption, “Scary that almost nailed someone… nastiest serve i hit fr.“But then again, it was not the first time that someone was on the wrong end of Shelton’s serve.

Revisiting Ben Shelton’s doubles drama at the 2025 Monte Carlo Masters

Remember what happened in his R64 match against Argentina’s Mariano Navone at the 2025  India Wells Masters? Navone’s reaction to Ben Shelton’s 150 mph serves was quite noteworthy! The Argentine tried his best to keep himself safe and win a few points against Shelton’s serve, but the American had the last laugh by sealing the victory with a 6-3,6-2 margin.

Later on in his doubles match at the 2025 Monte Carlo Masters, Italy’s Andrea Vavassori unfortunately came ‘in the firing line’. The Italian was heard complaining about how Shelton struck his body. Seeing his complaint to the chair umpire about Ben Shelton hitting him with a shot in the first set, the American said, “It’s tennis.. not baseball..So soft, so soft, Vamos.”

However, now coming back to the 2025 Citi Open, Shelton is all set to take on his close friend, Frances Tiafoe, for the fourth time in his career. At the moment, Shelton leads the H2H record by 2-1, but Tiafoe secured an impressive 6-1,6-4 victory over the in-form Flavio Cobolli in his previous match. Following this impressive win, Tiafoe said that he got into a really good rhythm at the end of the second set and also admitted that these fast courts are really helping him a lot.

Talking about his next opponent (Ben Shelton), he added, “I’m excited. We’re great friends. We played an incredible match at the Open last year, I think that’s the best we actually both played. He got me the first couple of times… I love that dude, but tomorrow obviously there’s no friends. We’re going to try to cut each other’s heads off, and the crowd’s going to love it. I’m going to love the competition, and I hope to get over the line.”

On the other hand, Ben Shelton recently admitted that he’s struggling to deal with one key change since making a switch from Wimbledon to the Citi Open. What’s that? He feels playing on hard courts after the clay and grass court swing makes it a bit harder on the legs. Can he overcome these challenges and come up with a win against a more formidable opponent like Frances Tiafoe in the QF?