Southpaw Shelton emulating Nadal and making waves at AO 2025

Expanding that out to the Open era, Shelton is just the eighth left-handed man to reach the last four at both hard-court majors, joining Nadal, Roscoe Tanner, Rod Laver, Guillermo Vilas, Tony Roche, Jimmy Connors and John McEnroe.

At the AO only, Shelton is only the third left-hander to make the semifinals, after Nadal and Fernando Verdasco.

Shelton, 22, is the youngest left-handed player to reach this stage of an AO since Nadal did so at the age of 21 in 2008, and should he shock Sinner, he will be only the second southpaw after the Spaniard to reach an AO final in the 21st century.

Flying the flag

This is the first time a left-handed American man will feature in an AO semifinal since Ben Testerman in 1984.

But it is not as though male players – right-handed or left-handed – from the United States have enjoyed great success at the AO since the turn of the century. Over the past 25 years, Andre Agassi, in 2000, 2001 and 2003, is the only American man to have won the AO title.

In contrast, three Americans – Agassi (1995), Pete Sampras (1994 and 1997) and Jim Courier (1992 and 1993) – claimed an AO crown between the tournament switching to Melbourne Park in 1988 and the end of 1999.