Benjamin Todd Shelton (born October 9, 2002) is an American professional tennis player. He has been ranked world No. 4 in men's singles by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP), achieved in September 2026. Shelton has won seven ATP Tour singles titles, including two Masters 1000 trophies at the 2025 and 2026 Canadian Opens. His best result at the majors is reaching the final of the 2026 US Open. He is currently the American No. 1 player in singles.
Shelton has won one doubles title, at the 2026 U.S. Men's Clay Court Championships with Andrés Andrade, and has a career-high doubles ranking of world No. 68, attained in May 2024.
Shelton was born on October 9, 2002, in Atlanta, Georgia. Shelton is the son of former professional tennis player Bryan Shelton. His mother, Lisa Witsken Shelton, was a highly ranked junior tennis player, and his uncle, Todd Witsken, was a professional tennis player. His sister Emma played college tennis at Florida. Shelton was born in Atlanta as his father was the then-coach of Georgia Tech's women's tennis team. He grew up in Gainesville, Florida, after his father became the coach of Florida Gators men's tennis team.
Shelton played American football in his early childhood, and his parents did not pressure him to play tennis. At age 12 he began playing tennis regularly, coached by his father.
He graduated from Buchholz High School.
Shelton peaked at No. 3 in the USTA Boys' 18s division rankings. He was a runner-up at the 2020 USTA Boys 18s Winter Nationals and won the 2019 USTA Boys 16s tournament in doubles.
Shelton had mixed results on the ITF junior circuit and reached a junior combined ranking of No. 306 in December 2020.
From 2020 to 2022, he played collegiate tennis for the Florida Gators. A finance major, Shelton mostly played No. 5 singles as a freshman in 2020–21 and had an overall record of 28–5. He helped the Gators win the Southeastern Conference (SEC) regular season title, and he won the championship-clinching match at the 2021 NCAA Championships, securing Florida's first national title.
In 2021–22, Shelton had a record of 37–5 in singles matches (including 14–2 in the No. 1 spot). He won the Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) All-American Championships in the fall without dropping a set. He helped Florida defend their SEC title and win the SEC Tournament Championship. Shelton won the 2022 NCAA Singles Championship over August Holmgren and finished the season as the nation's top-ranked player. He was named SEC Player of the Year and National Player of the Year.
Shelton returned to Florida for his junior year in 2022–23 to complete his finance degree, but soon continued his college education online.
2022: ATP debut, Challenger titles, Top 5 win
At the Georgia's Rome Challenger in July, Shelton reached his first Challenger final, losing to Wu Yibing. The next week at the Indy Challenger, he reached the semi-finals, highlighted by a win over world No. 103 Tim van Rijthoven.
Shelton made his ATP Tour debut at the Atlanta Open as a wildcard, and in the first round he defeated Ramkumar Ramanathan for his first ATP win. He lost his next match to the No. 2 seed John Isner in three sets. Shelton received a wildcard entry into the Cincinnati Masters. In the first round, he defeated world No. 56 Lorenzo Sonego in three sets for his first win over a top-100 player. In the 2nd round, Shelton faced world No. 5 Casper Ruud in his first matchup against a top-10 opponent. Shelton defeated Ruud, in straight sets for his first top-10 win.
On August 23, 2022, Shelton announced he would not return to college and would turn professional. He announced that he would be represented by agent Alessandro Sant Albano, who is a part of Roger Federer's TEAM8 management firm.
Shelton also received a wildcard to appear in the main draw for his Grand Slam debut at the US Open on August 14. He lost in the first round, in five sets, to Nuno Borges while also recording the second fastest serve of the US Open tournament at 149 miles per hour (240 km/h) in this match. He also competed in doubles having paired with fellow American Christopher Eubanks. They were eliminated in the second round after defeating Stefanos Tsitsipas and Petros Tsitsipas in the first round.
Shelton reached his third Challenger final of the year at the 2022 Tiburon Challenger after defeating top seed Denis Kudla. As a result, he moved into the top 160 in the rankings on October 10, 2022. He advanced to his fourth Challenger final at the Charlottesville Men's Pro Challenger where he defeated his doubles partner Christopher Eubanks to secure his first Challenger title. As a result, he moved into the top 150 in the rankings at world No. 128 on November 7.
His fifth Challenger final featured a repeat of his last with a win against Christopher Eubanks in the Knoxville Challenger which lifted him another 20 positions up to No. 108 in the rankings on November 14. After winning his third straight title at the Champaign–Urbana Challenger, he debuted in the top 100 of the rankings ending the year at world No. 97 on November 21, 2022, and became the youngest player in ATP Challenger Tour history to win three titles in three weeks. He was also the youngest American in the Top 250.
2023: First Major semifinal, first ATP title, top 15