Ben Shelton reveals his plans for the off-season, and surprisingly there is no tennis on the agenda

The 2025 tennis season saw Ben Shelton break into the ATP singles top 10 for the first time and a maiden Masters 1000 title triumph. However, it ended in disappointment for the 23-year-old as he crashed out of the year-end ATP Finals after losing all his Round Robin phase matches. Despite this, he recently revealed that his focus during the off-season will surprisingly be on sharpening his basketball skills and not on improving his tennis.

On Thursday, November 20, Shelton posted an Instagram Story, which featured a picture of the World No. 9 practicing basketball on an empty court at the Santa Clara University in California. Through the caption, he made it clear that his off-season agenda is to work on 'bunnies'; a slang term for open, uncontested shots, usually dunks or layups. The three-time career singles titlist wrote:

"Only working on the bunnies this offseason nothing else"

Shelton's Instagram Story dated Thursday, November 20, 2025 (Source: Instagram/benshelton)

Despite Ben Shelton's underwhelming displays at the 2025 ATP Finals, the American was at the center of a bold recent prediction voiced by a German former WTA icon.

"Ben Shelton would win the next Grand Slam" - German ex-WTA star Andrea Petkovic

Andrea Petkovic interacts with the media at the 2025 Berlin Tennis Open (Source: Getty)

Andrea Petkovic, a former World No. 9 in the WTA Tour's singles rankings, recently claimed to have seen a dream about Ben Shelton. According to Petkovic, she had a dream in which Shelton, coached by Boris Becker, broke Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner's present-day duopoly at the Slams to win the 2026 Australian Open, which is the next tennis Major and the first one of the upcoming season.

Speaking on the Becker Petkovic podcast, which she co-hosts alongside the legendary Boris Becker, Petkovic said:

"I had a dream that Boris Becker would be Shelton’s coach and he would win the next Grand Slam. He’d be the first to break the Alcaraz/Sinner dominance. I wrote to you that if that actually happens, I want a new job as a witch or fortune teller."

As things stand, Shelton is being coached by his father Bryan, who was a professional tennis player himself back in the day. At this year's Australian Open, the 23-year-old reached the semifinals for the first time in his career before being ousted from the Melbourne Slam by defending and eventual champion Jannik Sinner.

Ben Shelton, despite his commendable on-court achievements in 2025, opined in the aftermath of his ATP Finals exit that he has a long way to go before he can consistently perform against the world's best players.

Edited by Sudipto Pati