Ben Shelton thinks tennis courts could be changed because of what the current players are doing

The American is making his fourth appearance at Roland Garros, with his best result at the tournament having arrived last year as he reached the fourth round.

At a time when Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz are dominating the Grand Slams and indeed the ATP Tour in general, Shelton is still chasing his maiden career major title.

And he has now predicted a big change to tennis courts because of the way that the current generation of stars are playing the game.

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Ben Shelton thinks tennis courts could increase in size

Shelton was asked in his latest Roland Garros press conference if he thinks tennis will need to make some courts bigger given the current situation, much like golf has lengthened many of its courses.

He said: “I feel like they’re already massive.

“I do feel that there’s certain tournaments that it’s like for the size of tournament it is, or being on clay, for example Rome center court is very small compared to the center courts here.

“There’s no space there, it’s tight. This was really my first time hitting on it this year and I expected it to be bigger.

“I don’t think that Chatrier or Ashe or the Wimbledon Centre Court stadiums need to be any bigger.

“But I could see tournaments making some of the outside courts a little bigger just to have a more standardized field of play, so it’s not such a shock.

“Like you’re playing a US Open outside court and you feel like your back’s against the wall, and the guy’s serving 1000 miles an hour.

“And then you’re on Ashe, and you have 45 feet behind the baseline.”

Ben Shelton suggests American men can thrive in Roland Garros heat

Shelton is now trying his best to conquer the courts at Roland Garros, where the Philippe Chatrier venue is the main attraction, much like Arthur Ashe Stadium at the US Open.

But the ATP number five is also doing his best to deal with the heat in Paris, along with many fellow Americans.

Discussing if the heat is good for the American men at the Grand Slam, Shelton said: “Yeah, I mean every guy’s different.

“I think that in general, yes, I think that we’re just more used to dealing with it.

“All of us live in Florida, so that physical part becomes less of a factor, and yeah most of us do play well on fast courts. But I think that it’s just the stage that we’re playing on. One, it’s a Slam.

“It’s covered by TNT, Bleacher Report, especially for me and Frances [Tiafoe], those are where we watch all our NBA highlights, so it’s cool to see that they picked up this tournament, and there’s so much hype in the US around this tournament now, I think that that plays a big role in the improvement in results, in my opinion.

“I think that the heat is a factor as well, and is going to help us. But I expect good things from this US group that we have this tournament.”

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Shelton has already been joined in the second round of the event by Tiafoe and Tommy Paul, but Taylor Fritz failed to enjoy such success.

The seventh seed was shocked in his opening match by fellow American Nishesh Basavareddy, who won their thrilling clash 7-6(7-5), 7-6(7-5), 6-7(9-11), 6-1.

Their compatriots Marcos Giron and Eliot Spizzirri have also fallen, but Brandon Nakashima and Alex Michelsen are among the other American men to have safely made it to round two.