By Richard Pagliaro | Thursday, November 5, 2026
Photo credit: Screen Shot
Mastering match point madness, Ben Shelton battled into an all-American showdown in Paris.
A resolute Shelton out-dueled Frenchman Arthur Rinderknech 3-6, 6-4, 7-6(5) in a dramatic Court Centrale clash to set up an all-American showdown vs. Davis Cup teammate Tommy Paul at the Rolex Paris Masters.
A pulsating match climaxed with one of the wildest match points we’ve seen during this indoor season.
A desperate Rinderknech channeled his inner Boris Becker making a diving save on a drop volley before Shelton bumped an open court volley to end the match and hit a milestone.
The third-seeded Shelton scored a career-best 43rd win of the season, eclipsing his prior personal-best record of 42-26 in 2024. Shelton is the first American to reach back-to-back Paris quarterfinals since 2017 champion Jack Sock (2016-2018).
See it all happen here:
It’s Shelton’s 11th quarterfinal of the year and first since his run to his major maiden final at the US Open in September.
Earlier, Paul put on an attacking display of his own, defeating 46th-ranked Frenchman Quentin Halys 7-6(3), 6-4 to reach his 10th ATP Masters 1000 quarterfinal.
Riding sharp serving and an agile attack, Paul served 70 percent, won 43 of 45 first-serve points and prevailed in 13 of 14 trips to the net.
The 12th-seeded Paul improved to 49-21 on the season—he’s third on the ATP Tour in this season behind new world No. 1 Alexander Zverev (65) and former No. 1 Daniil Medvedev (52).
Enter Shelton and Rinderknech, who engaged in exciting and high quality all-court exchanges throughout their match.
The explosive pair combined for 32 aces and zero double faults, several dazzling net exchanges and only two service breaks in the match.
Deadlocked at 5-All in the tiebreaker, Rinderknech put himself in position to earn match point only to come up too long.
Wisely serving wide to Shelton’s backhand on a serve-and-volley, the Frenchman created an expanse of wide open court, but pushed a routine backhand volley long handing the American match point.
In the wild all-court exchange that followed, Shelton curled a crosscourt forehand, then dabbed a backspinning drop volley.
In a desperate dash forward, Rinderknech caught up to the ball and crashed face first to the court while lifting his reply before Shelton blocked the open-court volley to end an adventurous two hour, three-minute triumph.
World No. 4 Shelton, who is playing for his fifth title of the year, and Houston champion Paul have split four career meetings. This Paris quarterfinal clash will be their first encounter since Paul posted a 6-2, 6-4 win in the 2024 Dallas semifinals.
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