US tennis star explains how football background turned serve into weapon

Even so, Shelton acknowledged after his 3-6, 6-1, 7-6 (7-1), 7-5 fourth-round win over Italy’s Lorenzo Sonego at Wimbledon on that his football training has helped him on the court.

Shelton was asked by former British tennis player and current Wimbledon reporter Annabel Croft following his win how playing tennis compared to playing American football. After playfully joking with the crowd at the All England Club about their lack of robust knowledge of the sport, the 22-year-old Shelton explained that playing quarterback helped him develop a high-quality serve.

‘I grew up playing quarterback, or ‘quarterbacker,’ either way,’ Shelton said with a grin, poking fun at Croft misnaming the position. ‘Probably the only thing that is a direct correlation between tennis is the serve, as you guys can probably see. That’s kind of the one thing that I took from football onto the tennis court.’

Shelton isn’t the only one with that view. His father, Bryan – who previously coached at Georgia Tech and Florida before retiring to coach his son – explained in a 2022 interview playing quarterback helped the younger Shelton develop his arm in a way that led him to have a powerful serve.

‘There’s no doubt (it helped). That’s probably the biggest reason,’ the elder Shelton told the ATP Tour of his son’s time playing football. ‘Hopefully there’s something that we passed on as parents. But how you develop what gifts you have is really the key. Getting his elbow up and doing certain things with the football, and really trying to perfect that kind of allowed him to come into tennis and really develop that as a weapon, I think.

‘I think that’s a big part of why he loves everything above his head, whether it’s an overhead or a serve,’ he added. ‘He’s pretty dynamic with that.’

Indeed, the younger Shelton’s serve is one of the best on the ATP Tour. The lefty has converted 75.7% of his first-serve points over the last year – good for 17th among competitors – and has averaged the 13th-most aces per round at 9.7.

At Wimbledon, Shelton’s serving prowess has helped him to win 12 of his first 13 sets at the 2025 championship. His serve has only been broken in four games over the course of his four matches thus far in this year’s tournament.

Will elite-level serving allow Shelton to do something no American man has achieved since Pete Sampras in 2000 and win at Wimbledon? Only time will tell, but the 22-year-old is relishing a chance to compete in the spotlight with the support of his team, which includes his father, girlfriend and USWNT star Trinity Rodman and many more.

‘Obviously I have always loved athletics,’ Shelton said. ‘Playing in a team sports, something bigger than yourself. Now I am obviously playing an individual sport, but I have a team supporting me that I work with every day so that’s the most important thing to me.

‘I don’t want to be out here by myself, I want to be doing it with people that I love and I have a lot of people that I love over there,’ Shelton added, gesturing to his coaching box.