Looking at Ben Shelton's Serving

What the ATP serve leaderboard says about the 2026 US Open semifinalist Ben Shelton and if we can make any calls on who is going to win the 2026 US Open.

Image of Ben Shelton Serving — Ben Shelton Image Source

Who is Ben Shelton

Ben Shelton is currently ranked #9 in the world and the best American tennis player on the ATP Tour. Ben Shelton is known for his big serve and agressive play style. Ben Shelton is currently in the finals for the US Open after defeating Carlos Alcaraz at 3:30 in the morning and will not play Alexander Zverev in the finals of the 2026 US Open.

The ATP publishes its own composite Serve Rating, and Shelton is No. 2 on it — but he doesn't appear in the top 50 on the Return leaderboard. So the serve story is real and incomplete.

What This Page Will Cover

Player evaluation: how Shelton compares to the players ranked around him
Stat literacy: why the ace count on the broadcast graphic is the least useful number on screen
Context: where a serve-first game succeeds and where it stalls

How We're Measuring This

By looking at the serve's importance on three axes — (1) where Shelton ranks on the ATP's Serve Rating vs. his peers, (2) whether raw power (aces) actually correlates with that rating, and (3) what the Return and Under Pressure boards say he's missing — we will identify how valuable a serve truly is to Shelton.

The Data

ATP Logo The following data is from ATPtour.com. The leaderboard shows the top 50 players based on their serving stats as seen below.

Ben Shelton Alexander Zverev High Ace Count Shelton Areas of Concern

	Player	Serve Rating	% 1st Serve	% 1st Serve Points Won	% 2nd Serve Points Won	% Service Games Won	Avg. Aces/ Match	Avg. Double Faults/Match
1	Jannik Sinner	303.1	64.2%	80.6%	58.1%	93.2%	8.4	1.4
2	Ben Shelton	299.6	67.9%	76.7%	57.6%	90.3%	9.8	2.7
3	Taylor Fritz	299.6	65.4%	79.4%	53.6%	89.2%	14.1	2.1
4	Alexander Zverev	299.1	72.2%	75.3%	56.6%	88.1%	8.8	1.9
5	Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard	297.7	71.0%	77.0%	50.1%	87.0%	15.9	3.3
6	Hubert Hurkacz	296.5	63.6%	80.2%	50.4%	89.2%	15.8	2.7
7	Felix Auger-Aliassime	295.0	67.5%	78.2%	52.0%	89.2%	10.9	2.8
8	Carlos Alcaraz	292.2	66.4%	75.0%	57.4%	90.3%	5.1	2.0
9	Novak Djokovic	290.3	66.5%	75.5%	55.4%	87.3%	8.6	3.0
10	Brandon Nakashima	289.7	65.7%	77.6%	50.3%	87.1%	10.1	1.1
11	Arthur Rinderknech	289.2	63.4%	76.9%	52.6%	87.6%	11.8	3.1
12	Alexander Bublik	288.5	64.7%	78.4%	49.6%	87.8%	11.8	3.8
13	Matteo Berrettini	287.9	65.3%	76.0%	53.6%	85.9%	8.9	1.8
14	Jiri Lehecka	287.0	64.6%	75.4%	53.5%	86.7%	8.5	1.7
15	Valentin Vacherot	286.4	64.7%	76.1%	52.8%	86.5%	9.3	3.0
16	Casper Ruud	285.7	66.2%	73.3%	56.0%	86.4%	6.0	2.2
17	Arthur Fils	285.0	63.7%	75.0%	56.7%	86.6%	5.1	2.1
18	Yannick Hanfmann	284.6	62.6%	75.8%	54.4%	85.1%	8.8	2.1
19	Sebastian Korda	284.2	61.0%	77.3%	53.0%	85.3%	10.0	2.4
20	Karen Khachanov	283.6	64.8%	74.8%	52.5%	85.0%	8.7	2.2
21	Stefanos Tsitsipas	282.8	61.1%	77.4%	52.3%	87.1%	7.6	2.7
22	Joao Fonseca	282.0	67.4%	70.7%	56.2%	83.7%	5.7	1.7
23	Tommy Paul	280.5	60.6%	74.5%	55.2%	85.3%	6.9	2.0
24	Alejandro Tabilo	280.2	65.3%	74.1%	51.9%	84.1%	6.5	1.7
25	Alejandro Davidovich Fokina	280.1	68.5%	71.1%	54.4%	83.5%	4.3	1.7
26	Aleksandar Kovacevic	279.4	60.0%	77.2%	50.5%	84.7%	10.8	3.8
27	Tallon Griekspoor	278.9	64.0%	73.8%	52.4%	83.3%	8.6	3.2
28	Nuno Borges	278.7	66.2%	74.7%	48.9%	84.3%	6.7	2.1
29	Lorenzo Musetti	278.5	64.4%	72.0%	55.3%	84.0%	4.9	2.1
30	Tomas Martin Etcheverry	278.3	65.7%	72.7%	53.1%	82.1%	6.6	1.9
31	Ugo Humbert	278.0	60.5%	75.7%	53.1%	84.7%	7.2	3.2
32	Alexander Blockx	277.7	60.2%	77.2%	50.5%	85.1%	7.7	3.0
33	Lorenzo Sonego	277.7	65.8%	73.2%	51.7%	81.9%	7.2	2.1
34	Quentin Halys	277.7	58.6%	77.5%	50.8%	83.3%	10.7	3.2
35	Alexei Popyrin	277.4	62.8%	74.5%	51.7%	80.9%	9.7	2.2
36	Thiago Agustin Tirante	277.3	57.7%	75.4%	54.9%	83.5%	8.4	2.6
37	Jakub Mensik	276.3	59.7%	78.1%	47.6%	83.7%	11.6	4.4
38	Frances Tiafoe	276.2	58.6%	75.0%	53.6%	84.2%	7.1	2.3
39	Terence Atmane	275.7	61.4%	75.4%	51.4%	82.3%	7.6	2.4
40	Andrey Rublev	274.7	60.7%	74.5%	51.8%	83.3%	7.3	2.9
41	Marcos Giron	274.0	63.3%	71.8%	52.7%	82.7%	5.5	2.0
42	Daniil Medvedev	273.3	64.0%	74.7%	47.8%	83.0%	8.2	4.4
43	Cameron Norrie	272.5	63.6%	70.5%	54.1%	82.1%	4.9	2.7
44	Fabian Marozsan	272.0	66.0%	69.9%	53.2%	80.3%	4.8	2.2
45	Gabriel Diallo	271.9	69.0%	72.4%	45.7%	79.5%	7.9	2.6
46	Raphael Collignon	271.9	63.5%	76.1%	46.5%	83.0%	8.3	5.5
47	Ethan Quinn	271.8	63.3%	74.8%	47.6%	81.8%	7.6	3.3
48	Marin Cilic	271.6	57.0%	77.4%	48.9%	82.4%	9.0	3.1
49	Kamil Majchrzak	270.8	63.1%	71.4%	50.4%	80.7%	7.0	1.8
50	Alex de Minaur	270.0	57.9%	71.2%	56.1%	83.1%	4.4	2.7

ATP Serve Leaderboard

The Breakdown

Ben Shelton Alexander Zverev High Ace Count Shelton Areas of Concern

	Player	Serve Rating	% 1st Serve	% 1st Serve Points Won	% 2nd Serve Points Won	% Service Games Won	Avg. Aces/ Match	Avg. Double Faults/Match
1	Jannik Sinner	303.1	64.2%	80.6%	58.1%	93.2%	8.4	1.4
2	Ben Shelton	299.6	67.9%	76.7%	57.6%	90.3%	9.8	2.7
3	Taylor Fritz	299.6	65.4%	79.4%	53.6%	89.2%	14.1	2.1
4	Alexander Zverev	299.1	72.2%	75.3%	56.6%	88.1%	8.8	1.9
5	Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard	297.7	71.0%	77.0%	50.1%	87.0%	15.9	3.3
6	Hubert Hurkacz	296.5	63.6%	80.2%	50.4%	89.2%	15.8	2.7

ATP Serve Leaderboard

What the Data Tells Us

The serve is real

Shelton has a powerful and effective serve, ranked just after Jannik Sinner for the best servers on the ATP tour.

Aces aren't the whole story

Mpetshi Perricard hits 15.9 aces a match and ranks 5th. Hurkacz hits 15.8 and ranks 6th. Sinner hits 8.4 — barely half — and ranks 1st. Shelton is only 9.8. This means that Serve Rating rewards efficiency, not power. The ace count in the table tells you almost nothing.

What are Shelton's Strengths?

Since aces don't drive the ranking, Shelton's value comes from consistency. He lands 67.9% of first serves and wins 57.6% of second-serve points — the second-best second-serve number in the entire top 25, behind only Sinner. The second serve is the shot a player can't hide, and Shelton's is the hardest to attack of any big server on this list.

What the Serve Can't Do

Shelton ranks 2nd of 50 on serve and doesn't appear in the top 50 on the ATP's Return leaderboard. Sinner and Alcaraz are top-3 on both. Holding serve keeps Shelton in matches, but he can't take his opponent's, so his path runs through tiebreaks and fifth sets — which is how his quarterfinal against Alcaraz ended at 3:33 in the morning.

How It Played Out

Zverev, the tournament's No. 1 seed, sits one spot below Shelton at No. 4 on the same leaderboard — but with the opposite profile. He lands 72.2% of first serves to Shelton's 67.9% and double-faults less often (1.9 vs 2.7), and unlike Shelton he ranks on the return leaderboard. Shelton had the bigger weapon; Zverev had fewer holes, and won the final in four sets. The serve is what made Shelton a finalist. It's also why he wasn't the champion.

Definitions for Tennis Terms

% 1st Serve: How often a player's first serve lands in. Higher means more consistency, though a very high number can mean a player is easing off to avoid missing.
% 1st Serve Points Won: The share of points won when the first serve goes in — the cleanest measure of how much damage a serve actually does.
% 2nd Serve Points Won: The share of points won on the second serve. The most revealing serve stat there is, because the second serve is the shot a player can't hide. Anything above 55% is elite.
% Service Games Won: The percentage of his own service games a player holds. This is what a great serve is ultimately for.
Ace: A legal serve the returner never touches, winning the point outright. Spectacular, heavily televised, and a surprisingly weak predictor of overall serving quality.
Double Fault: Two missed serves on the same point; the server loses it without the ball ever being in play. The cost of serving big.
Return Rating: The ATP's companion leaderboard, measuring how well a player performs on the opponent's serve — return points won, return games won, and break points converted. Shelton does not appear in its top 50.
Break Point: A point that, if the returner wins it, ends the server's game. Since holding serve is the default in men's tennis, break points are where matches are decided.