Mumbai, March 31: Ben Shelton played one of the best and most unorthodox shots at the French Open so far when he won a point one-handed after falling flat on his stomach. The 13th-seeded American was serving at 3-0, 15-0 in the second set against Italian qualifier Matteo Gigante on Court Simonne-Mathieu. Gigante looped the service return, and Shelton hit a forehand from behind the baseline, lost his footing and fell onto his stomach. Rohan Bopanna, Adam Pavlasek Advance to Men's Doubles Third Round in French Open 2025 With Victory Over France's Fabien Reboul and Sadio Doumbia.

Somehow, he managed to crawl for a few centimeters (inches) and stick out his left arm to get the next ball back over the net and in. Shelton then jumped to his feet and returned Gigante's big forehand with a two-handed backhand which landed near the Italian's feet.

That prompted Gigante to try a volley but it hit the net and gave Shelton the point. Gigante gave Shelton, who had rushed to the net, a friendly hand check. Shelton joked about how he made the shot.

“It was because of my lack of good clay court movement I fell on my face, and so that's why I hit the ball from the ground. I wish I could say I dove for that, but I had already fell on my face before the ball was arriving. Sorry, there was a bee on me,” he said. French Open 2025: Iga Swiatek Survives Second-Set Scare To Extend Reign to 24 Wins.

Shelton won the third-round match 6-3, 6-3, 6-4 and was preparing for an on-court interview when he got into more unexpected bother, from an insect. The bee came back moments later and Shelton readied his fists as if to box it away.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)