TOKYO: Rising tennis star Ben Shelton said on Friday that his career had moved “a lot faster than I would have thought” after advancing to the semi-finals of the Japan Open.

The 21-year-old has qui­ckly made a name for himself since turning professional in August last year, reaching the quarter-finals of the Australian Open in January and the semi-finals of the US Open last month.

The world number 19 beat fellow American Tom­my Paul 7-6 (7-4), 6-3 in Tokyo to move a step closer to his first ATP Tour title, and said he was “really happy with the way things are going”.

“I didn’t think right away that I was going to be a pro as soon as my college career was over, that I would be on the main ATP Tour this quickly,” said Shelton, who will play another American, Marcos Giron, in the semi-finals. “Definitely things have moved a lot faster than I would have thought when I was in college.”

He was happy to continue his recent run of form after reaching the quarter-finals of last week’s Shanghai Masters.

“Wins are tough out here on tour so to get three in a row is something that’s a pretty cool feat for me, something that hasn’t come often for me yet in my career so far,” he said.

Semi-final opponent Giron moved on after a 6-1, 6-4 win over Canadian number-eight seed Felix Auger-Aliassime.

World number 79 Giron came through qualifying and knocked out Norwe­gian number-two seed Casper Ruud in the second round.

The other semi-final will be between Russia’s Aslan Karatsev and Japanese wild card Shintaro Mochizuki.

Mochizuki, ranked 215 in the world, knocked out top seed Taylor Fritz in the second round and he continued his run with a 7-5, 2-6, 7-5 win over Australia’s Alexei Popyrin.

Karatsev beat number-four seed Alex de Minaur 6-3, 6-2 in the other quarter-final, eliminating the last seeded player standing at the competition.

Published in Dawn, October 21st, 2023