Wimbledon star issues apology to crowd after winning match in 55 seconds
Ben Shelton issued an apology after winning his latest Wimbledon outing in less than a minute. The American took on Rinky Hijikata in the second round of the tournament.
And he safely made it through by winning in straight sets. But his win came in bizarre circumstances having originally got underway against Hijikata on Thursday.
He was two sets up and was leading 5-4 in the third, putting him on the verge of victory. However, the umpire on court two then brought proceedings to a close at 9:30pm, claiming that there was not enough light.
That triggered a furious reaction from Shelton, who was determined to play on. In the end, it only took Shelton 55 seconds to eventually secure victory on Friday, while he then apologised to the Wimbledon crowd for the lack of action.
"I'm sorry that you guys didn't really get to see much tennis," he said in his on-court interview. "No rallies but hopefully the rest of the matches today and hopefully in my match tomorrow you guys see a little bit more."
Shelton then claimed he might have to visit the practice courts given the lack of play that he had faced on Friday. He added: 'I was hoping to maybe hit a few groundstrokes today! I might have to go to the practice courts. Overall, I couldn't be more happy being in the third round of Wimbledon.
"I thought it was a great match, a clean match. I thought Rinky played really well. My shot-making was really hot last night, the crowd was in it with me. I'm not sure how many of you guys were in the crowd last night but thanks everybody for staying late and then coming back."
Shelton will now take on Hungarian Márton Fucsovics as he aims to reach the fourth round of Wimbledon. Elsewhere, tournament director Jamie Baker has defended the decision for the game to be stopped on Thursday.
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"We gave the players as much time as we possibly could to try to finish that match. We played till very, very late. It was extremely dark," he said to BBC Sport."Ultimately, we have a team of officials who are on the court, and they're making a judgment call on several different factors.
"They just did not feel comfortable with the match continuing in almost complete darkness. So we do stand by the decision. Sometimes these things happen. [We have] lots of matches to get on court - it was definitely the right decision from the officials."
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