Paul Jubb +88 in ATP Rankings after stunning Ben Shelton upset
Paul Jubb in action
World No 289 Paul Jubb upset 14th-ranked Ben Shelton in a thrilling three-set quarter-final at the Mallorca Championships to earn the biggest win of his career by far.
The 24-year-old Brit downed top seed Shelton 6-3, 3-6, 7-6(8) in two hours and 45 minutes to reach the semi-finals of the ATP 250 tournament. Prior to this week, Jubb had not won a match on the ATP Tour.
Jubb raced to a 4-0 lead in a blistering start and had a break point on Shelton’s serve at 6-3, 2-0, 40-30 in the second set, before the American started a fightback.
Shelton saved seven break points as he turned the second set around and also fought off all eight break points he faced in the third — three of which were match points — to force a final set tiebreak.
American tennis quartet could end up regretting Olympic decision ‘for the rest of their lives’, warns former world No 7
Jubb took a 4-1 lead in the tiebreak and saw three more match points slip away at 6-4, 6-5, and 7-6, before he converted his seventh chance at 9-8 to edge a tense tiebreaker and seal a huge victory.
The Brit’s triumph against the 21-year-old American, who is the world No 14, was his first against an opponent ranked in the top 20 of the ATP Rankings.
Jubb has won five straight matches, including two to qualify, during a hugely impressive run to the last four in Mallorca. He has received a main draw wildcard for next week’s 2024 Wimbledon Championships.
Wimbledon men’s singles seeds confirmed: Jannik Sinner in top spot, Novak Djokovic above Carlos Alcaraz
Wimbledon 2024: Will Novak Djokovic and Emma Raducanu play? Dates, top seeds, draw, prize money
The 24-year-old dropped just six games in dismantling Maximilian Marterer and Adam Walton in the opening two rounds after convincing qualifying wins over Joan Nadal and Thiago Monteiro.
The Hull-born player has made a mammoth 88-place jump to 201st in the Live ATP Rankings, having started the week at 289. This is just below the career-high ranking of world No 196 he reached in September 2022.
He will face world No 54 Sebastian Ofner in the semi-finals on Friday and could climb as high as 166th for reaching the final, while winning the title could take him to 139th position.
Jubb won the NCAA Division I Men’s Tennis Championship singles title in 2019 — a tournament previously won by Shelton and tennis legend John McEnroe.
In an on-court interview after beating Shelton, Jubb said: “It just kept getting better and better throughout the match. I was thriving out here tonight.
“Super, super happy. This is obviously huge for me. Last year was so tough, injured most of the year. I’ve been working very, very hard to get back to this point.”
Billy Harris is another British man who has made his first ATP semi-final this week. The 29-year-old earned an impressive 6-7(3), 7-6(4), 6-2 win against world No 49 Flavio Cobolli in the Eastbourne quarter-finals today.
Harris is up 23 places in the Live ATP Rankings to 116th, which would be a new career-best ranking. He will face 94th-ranked Max Purcell in the last four on Friday.