Ben Shelton has been backed to win multiple Grand Slams despite being in the same era as the likes of Carlos Alcaraz, Jannik Sinner, and Alexander Zverev.

The 23-year-old got a taste of his first major final at the US Open, only to lose to Zverev in four sets. However, he ousted the returning Alcaraz along the way, highlighting how he can beat the very best on the biggest stage.

With world No 1 Sinner set to return from a knee injury soon, Alcaraz likely to get back to his best after recovering from a wrist problem, and Zverev now a two-time Grand Slam winner, it may be tough for the rest of the field to steal a march on the top three.

However, with Shelton‘s booming serve and firepower, the American may have it in him to end his country’s 23-year wait for a men’s major winner. Now, tennis commentator and analyst Gill Gross has predicted Shelton can win a handful of Grand Slams and tennis historian Steve Flink concurs with him.

The former believes the left-hander, who is 0-6 against Zverev, 1-3 versus Alcaraz, and 1-9 when facing Sinner, is not even close to his full potential yet and he can improve his game across the board.

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Gross said on his YouTube channel, “I still think he profiles as someone who can win one to four majors. I don’t think he’s close to his ceiling yet. The serve, I think, will get better. The volleys, I believe, will get better. And the return, based on what we’ve seen in the last couple of months, is actually on a pretty good trajectory.

“I still think he’s raw. There’s still room to improve. The mentality has always been really good. So I come out of this not with a drastically different opinion on Shelton than what I had before, but for me, he’s like a one-to-four major kind of guy.”

Flink highlighted how Shelton stated he was “just getting started” after losing in the final at Flushing Meadows. Indeed, he is up to a career-high of fourth in the world and in the ATP Tour Race, he is third.

If he can improve his serving accuracy and iron out other parts of his game, Flink can see him winning at least two majors and as many as four.

He said, “I’m going to put him as a two to four major guy, because I somehow can’t see him only getting one. And this certainly didn’t change my opinion of anything.

“It just reinforced it, because you could see by the reaction afterwards, as sporting as he was toward his opponent, he made it clear when he said, ‘I’m just getting started’, that he wasn’t satisfied with the result, which I thought was just the right perspective for him. The serve will improve, especially with location.

“There’s that big debate out there… I want bigger serves, more consistently, go with the bombs. I think surely he and his father (Bryan Shelton) have considered, and they may consider and reconsider. They’ll figure that part out.

“But to me, the bigger thing is going closer to the lines more frequently. And if he does, that’s going to make a big difference. We’re going to see more aces and service winners than we see now. So I think there’s tremendous room for growth in terms of the accuracy of the serve. And he’ll figure out how often he wants to go for his very biggest serves.”

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