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Ben Shelton, the world’s No. 17 tennis player, noticed something at the US Open this year, where he lost in an instant classic four-hour, five-set duel in the third round to fellow American Frances Tiafoe.
“Not throwing any shade, but you go to the US Open, and you see the guys in Nike, and there’s 20 guys wearing the same thing, or Adidas, 20 guys wearing the same thing,” he told FOS in an interview this week ahead of the Laver Cup in Berlin.
With On Brand, which has endorsed Shelton since March 2023, “At first it was just me. I was the first active [men’s] tennis player that they signed. Obviously, they had Roger [Federer] with the shoe. … So it’s really special for me. I don’t think many people who work with clothing companies get as much access as On has given me. The ability to kind of grow with the company, I think, is really cool.”
It’s an interesting perspective from a 21-year-old on his first head-to-toe apparel deal, especially considering that his fellow On ambassador Federer spent 24 years as a Nike athlete before his contract ended in 2018 and he went to Uniqlo for apparel and On for shoes.
Shelton says he’s able to “interact with the higher-ups in the company,” something he doubts would happen if he were with one of the big giants among their huge portfolios of athletes in every sport.
Next on the tennis calendar, Shelton is competing in the seventh Laver Cup, the six-on-six Europe vs. Rest of World tournament Federer and his agent, Tony Godsick, started in 2017. Taylor Fritz (world No. 7) and Tiafoe (16) are also playing on the U.S. side, while Carlos Alcaraz (3), Grigor Dimitrov (10), Daniil Medvedev (5), and Alexander Zverev (2) are all playing for Europe. (Rafael Nadal withdrew last-minute.)
The Laver Cup has aims of being seen as the “Ryder Cup of Tennis,” though it will likely need more years of attention to reach that status.
“I think it’s a great event for tennis,” Shelton said. “You see how many guys in the top 10, top 15 are playing, they care about this. You get to see the guys in a team-like atmosphere for one time out of the whole year where we’re [normally] only thinking about ourselves, playing for ourselves. You get to see the reactions of the guys on the bench a little bit more, relaxed setting, cheering for their guys, goofing off. It’s something that I really enjoyed last year.”
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