Ben Shelton beat defending champion Carlos Alcaraz at the 2026 US Open in a five-set quarterfinal that finished at 3:33 a.m., the latest-ever conclusion to a match at Flushing Meadows. The win, 6-7(5), 6-1, 6-3, 1-6, 7-6(10-7), sent him into the semifinals against fellow American Frances Tiafoe and marked his first career win over Alcaraz.
It also put fresh attention on the family that has shaped his career since childhood: his father and coach Bryan Shelton, his mother Lisa Witsken Shelton, and his older sister Emma Shelton.
Bryan Shelton, the father and coach
Bryan Shelton was born on December 22, 1965, in Huntsville, Alabama. He played college tennis at Georgia Tech, then turned pro in 1989. His playing career ran through the late 1980s and 1990s.
He reached a career-high singles ranking of world No. 55 and a career-high doubles ranking of No. 52. He won two ATP singles titles, both at Newport, and finished his playing career with career prize money of $1,220,283.
After retiring from the tour in 1997, Bryan moved into college coaching. He led the Georgia Tech women’s team to the NCAA championship in 2007. He later took over the University of Florida men’s program in 2012. In 2021, he coached the Gators to their first NCAA team title in program history, with Ben on that championship roster as a freshman. Bryan is also recognized as the first African American head coach to win an NCAA tennis team championship. In June 2023, he stepped away from college coaching entirely to become Ben’s full-time traveling coach on the ATP Tour, a role he still holds through the 2026 season.
Bryan has been an outspoken presence in his son’s career off the court as well. After Novak Djokovic imitated Ben’s “dialed-in” phone celebration following their 2023 US Open semifinal, Bryan pushed back publicly, telling reporters that Djokovic “wanted to mock Ben at the end. It wasn’t something he was doing just to copy Ben.
It was to mock him. And that’s too bad, for that to come from such a great champion.” Djokovic later said in an interview with L’Equipe that the gesture was a response to what he considered unsportsmanlike conduct from Shelton earlier in the match. Ben himself downplayed the moment at the time, saying “imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.”
Lisa Witsken Shelton, the mother
Lisa Witsken Shelton grew up in or around Carmel, Indiana, as one of eight siblings in a family with deep tennis roots. She was an accomplished junior player and competed at the collegiate level before stepping away from competitive tennis. Her brother, Todd Witsken, played on the ATP Tour in the 1980s and 1990s. He reached a career-high ranking of No. 43 in singles and No. 4 in doubles, was a three-time All-American at USC, and won the Italian Open in doubles. He also competed at the 1988 Australian Open and the 1989 French Open. Todd Witsken died in May 1998 at age 34.
Bryan and Lisa met while both were playing tennis at Georgia Tech and married in October 1999. Lisa later shifted her career from tennis into real estate. She now works as an agent with Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate Thomas Group in Gainesville, Florida, where the family has long been based. Bryan has spoken in interviews about the mix of tennis pedigree on both sides of the family, joking, “We kid around, like which genes is Ben playing with, the Shelton genes or the Witsken genes? He’s got some good blood running through him, that’s for sure.”
Emma Shelton, the older sister
Emma Shelton is Ben’s older sibling. She played college tennis herself, starting at the University of South Carolina before transferring to the University of Florida in June 2021, following in her father’s and brother’s footsteps to the same program. During her college career, she was named SEC Freshman and Newcomer of the Week in April 2021 and won the ITA Carolina Region Rookie of the Year award in 2020. She also won the USTA Winter National Championships in January of an earlier season.
Emma graduated in 2023 with a degree in finance and moved away from competitive tennis to build a career in the industry. She works as an Alternative Investments Specialist at Morgan Stanley and relocated to New York City in July 2026 after a promotion. Despite the career change, she remains close to her brother and travels to watch him play when her schedule allows. At the 2026 Wimbledon Championships, Ben used a post-match interview to publicly ask Morgan Stanley to give Emma extra paid time off so she could stay in London to watch the rest of his run, a moment that drew attention well beyond tennis media.
Growing up in a tennis household
Ben Shelton was born on October 9, 2002, in Atlanta, Georgia, while Bryan was coaching the Georgia Tech women’s team. The family later moved to Gainesville, Florida, after Bryan took the head coaching job at the University of Florida in 2012. Ben graduated from Buchholz High School in Gainesville and had a modest junior career by the standards of future top-10 players: he peaked at No. 3 in the USTA Boys’ 18s division and reached a combined ITF junior ranking of only No. 306 in December 2020, well outside the profile of a typical future ATP top-five player at that stage.
Rather than turn pro out of high school, Shelton followed his father to the University of Florida, where he played under Bryan directly for two seasons, from 2020 to 2022. He helped the Gators win the 2021 NCAA team championship as a freshman, then won the 2022 NCAA singles title as a sophomore, finishing that season as the nation’s top-ranked collegiate player and earning both SEC Player of the Year and ITA National Player of the Year honors. He turned pro in August 2022, shortly after that title, forgoing his final two years of college eligibility.
A family built around tennis
Ben Shelton is biracial: Bryan is African American, and Lisa is white. Between Bryan’s ATP career and coaching record, Todd Witsken’s ATP career, Lisa’s junior tennis background, and Emma’s college tennis career, the sport runs through both sides of the family across two generations. That shared history is part of why Bryan’s move from college coaching to full-time travel with Ben in 2023 was framed by both as a natural continuation of a partnership that began long before Ben ever played a professional match.
