Ben Shelton wins second ATP title of career in Houston, joins exclusive list with father Bryan

Ben Shelton has won the second ATP title of his career in Houston, battling past countryman Frances Tiafoe in the final, 7-5, 4-6, 6-3.

It’s Shelton’s first ATP title on clay—in fact, before this week, he had never even been to the quarterfinals of an ATP event on the surface, though last year was just his first full season on the tour.

But there’s more.

The Sheltons—father, Bryan, and son, Ben—are just the second father-son duo to both win multiple tour-level titles in the Open Era.

Bryan, who now coaches Ben, played on the tour between 1989 and 1997, going as high as No. 55 on the ATP rankings in 1992—and he picked up two ATP titles in his career, both at the grass-court event in Newport and in back-to-back years, in 1991 and 1992.

And Ben just added the ATP 250 clay-court title in Houston to his triumph at the ATP 500 hard-court event in Tokyo last fall.

The only other father-son duo to both win multiple tour-level titles in the Open Era are the Dents. Phil Dent won three, at Sydney in 1971 then Brisbane and Sydney in 1979, and his son, Taylor, won four, at Newport in 2002 then Memphis, Bangkok and Moscow in 2003.

The Sheltons and the Dents are two of four father-son duos to both win at least one career tour-level title in the Open Era.

Ramanathan and Ramesh Krishnan also achieved the feat, with Ramanathan winning one in the Open Era in Toronto in 1968 (though he won more pre-Open Era), then his son, Ramesh, winning eight.

And the Kordas are also on the list, with Petr winning 10 (including a Grand Slam title at the 1998 Australian Open) and his son, Sebastian, winning one so far in Parma, Italy in 2021. When Sebastian wins his second, the Kordas will join the Dents and the Sheltons.