ATP Weekly: Shelton wins third title of 2026 in Stuttgart | Majchrzak wins Libéma Open | Halle & Queen's Previews

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**John Silk** (1:41)
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Well, hello, everyone, and welcome in to ATP Weekly. I am joined by Amanda and Carson. Thanks for taking the time, guys. And today, we are going to be recapping the Boss Open in Stuttgart, and the La Bema Open in Es-Hertogenbosch, the Dutch. So let's start with the Boss Open.
It's Ben Shelton who claims his third title of the year, second time he's taken down Fritz in a final. And he seems to really enjoy playing in Germany. And now that I'm thinking, you know, has Shelton kind of edged out Fritz here? I feel like a long time for us, I'm an American, but Fritz was kind of that guy with maybe Tommy Paul trailing him. And here has come, you know, Ben Shelton with just a little bit more pop. He's got a little bit more of a spark. And maybe some more weaponry. So I'm going to start with you, Amanda. You know, where do you stand in terms of the race to number one for American men's tennis? Has Shelton clearly kind of edged himself as that number one?

**Amanda** (3:01)
I think he has, yeah. And I do think that Fritz, you know, being injured definitely sped the process up. And I don't think it's fair to say that like, oh, like Fritz is done now because I don't think he is. But I mean, the last three matches, Fritz and Shelton have played, Shelton won. And it was either he was just completely dominating the whole time or he was just better in the close moments. So I think, you know, he has the matchup advantage. And then he just consistently performs better at Grand Slams, I think. Like he, you know, Fritz has a couple semis. He has the US Open final, obviously. But I feel like Shelton is more consistently making deep runs at Grand Slams. And I mean, his ranking is just higher. So I do think that he is in that spot right now. But I do think also the difference is, Fritz always cared a lot about being the number one American. Like he admitted that. And I don't know if Shelton has that same like attachment to being the number one American.

**John Silk** (4:01)
Yeah. I think that's a good point too, because it's kind of been a slow but steady rise for Shelton. I think coming on tour, we knew his ability on hard courts. And obviously, grass court is a much shorter time period. We're looking at four to six weeks, two events, sometimes three. And Clay was kind of the big surface that I think we knew was going to take some time. But three years later, we're having a realistic conversation that I think deserves some talking because it's a 22, 23-year-old Ben Shelton lefty with just so much weaponry. And yeah, I guess I think you make a good point about the injury too.
Because Fritz has come here, I guess it goes both ways, right? Recovering, but also letting him kind of focus on the grass season, where others have just had a two and a half month draining clay season. So this week was really odd though, in terms of the weather, all of the delays.