Ben Shelton won the second clay court title of his career at the 2026 BMW Open. After his victory at the ATP 500 clay court tournament in Munich, former doubles world No. 1 Rennae Stubbs praised Shelton’s skills on clay, boldly comparing his game to that of Rafael Nadal.
Shelton was seeded second at the 2026 BMW Open and defeated lucky loser Emilio Nava, Wild Card Alexander Blockx, João Fonseca, and qualifier Alex Molčan to reach the final. In the championship match, he triumphed over fourth seed Flavio Cobolli with a score of 6–2, 7–5, securing his fifth career ATP Tour title.
Rennae Stubbs Compares Ben Shelton’s Clay-Court Game to Rafael Nadal
In a recent episode of “The Rennae Stubbs Tennis Podcast,” Stubbs expressed that clay might be Shelton’s best surface because of his strong serve and its speed, which greatly benefits his game.
“Benny Shels, man oh man, I think the clay might be his surface in a lot of ways, and I think there are a couple of reasons why, one, the serve and the kick serve, and he can serve anybody off the court, it doesn’t matter what court. His variety of speed on the serve actually really helps him. He’s gonna hit his serve and win points on every surface; he’s gonna ace people,” Stubbs said.
Stubbs highlighted that the former World No. 5 possesses a “beautiful kick serve” and a “phenomenal forehand,” similar to Nadal’s, which makes him particularly effective on clay.
“But on clay because he has that beautiful kick serve as well, and he gets people off the court, and guess what else, he has a phenomenal forehand with so much top spin. So if you think about Rafael Nadal’s forehand, how progressive and how good it was on clay, bouncing up super high, getting out of people’s hitting zones, that’s what Ben Shelton’s doing,” she continued.
The Aussie also mentioned that, in some respects, Shelton has even more power in his forehand than the 22-time Grand Slam champion, which poses challenges for his opponents.
“He actually has even more power in some regards than Rafa’s forehand, which is saying something. Benny Shel’s forehand gets off the court; he pulls people off the court. It bounces up, it gets out of people’s hitting zones and the serve, so he’s going to be really hard to break, and also he can hit his back end a little bit better because he has a bit more time on the clay, and he can use his slice, and he can come into the net,” she said.
Stubbs stated that Shelton appears “really comfortable” on clay and stressed that he just needs to find a way to win best-of-five-set matches against players like Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner to capture a Grand Slam title.
“I mean, over 5 sets is very different. We talk about this ad nauseam through the years. He’s gonna have to find a way to beat [Carlos] Alcaraz and [Jannik] Sinner over 5 sets on any surface to win a Major. But he is the one American that I think can break through because of these massive weapons that he has, and boy oh boy, he looked real comfortable on the clay. He looked real comfortable,” Stubbs added.
Looking ahead, Shelton will next compete at the 2026 Madrid Open. He is seeded fourth at the tournament, and he will begin his campaign in the second round after receiving a first-round bye. In his opening match, he will face the winner of the first-round match between Matteo Berrettini and Raphaël Collignon.
The winner of the matchup between Shelton and either Berrettini or Collignon will advance to play against either the 25th seed Tomás Martín Etcheverry, Sebastian Ofner, a qualifier, or a lucky loser in the third round of the tournament.
