Ben Shelton on Wednesday cruised to a 6-3, 6-3 victory over Michael Mmoh behind a dominant serve, advancing to the quarter-finals of the Dallas Open.
The third-seeded American lost just three points on his serve while breaking Mmoh early in both sets.
Shelton, who lost to Novak Djokovic in the semi-finals of the US Open last year, went up 3-0 in the first set with a break of Mmoh.
Photo: EPA-EFE
The servers had won the first 18 points of the second set when Shelton won three in a row on Mmoh’s serve for a break point before going on to break for a 3-2 lead.
Shelton broke Mohr again for a 5-3 lead before the hard-serving left-hander closed out the match at love.
It was Shelton’s first match of the week on the campus of Southern Methodist University, while Mmoh had advanced with a first-round victory.
“I was pretty surprised with the level I played at today,” said Shelton, who is ranked 16th.
“It’s always tough when you’re around a tournament site for almost a week and kind of sit around waiting for your match,” the American said
Two seeded players lost in straight sets in earlier matches.
Fifth-seeded American Christopher Eubanks fell to Australia’s James Duckworth 7-6 (7/3), 6-4, while Duckworth’s fellow countryman, sixth seed Max Purcell, was a 6-4, 6-3 loser against Marcos Giron of the US.
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