Ben Shelton vs Alex Bolt Tips, Prediction & Live Stream - Big-serving lefties collide in Wimbledon first round

Shelton has recently cracked the top 10 for the first time, but it's not been a great last month or so - he's currently on a four-match losing streak (if you also include an exhibition loss to Tomas Martin Etcheverry in Hurlingham just before Wimbledon), failing to win a single set in those four defeats. Now, Shelton has been tasked with a potentially tricky opening round test at Wimbledon against a genuine grass courter.

Only a handful of players on tour have played as many grass court matches in their entire careers than Bolt (134), with the Aussie qualifying for his fourth Wimbledon main draw last week. Bolt has won 31 of his last 38 matches at all levels on the surface and the battle of swinging lefty serves here will be fascinating. On current form, there's no reason why Bolt can't win a set, but Shelton usually lifts for the slams and should be able to find a way to dig this one out.

This will be the first career meeting between the pair.

It's been a wildly inconsistent season for Shelton with many highs and lows - he comes into this clash with a relatively modest 19-14 record, struggling on a four-match losing streak, but also operating at a career-high ranking of No. 10.

Shelton launched the season by reaching the Australian Open semi-finals, while he's also made the final of the ATP 500 event in Munich and the fourth round of Roland Garros.

However, apart from that, Shelton hasn't really made an impact and it will be interesting to see how he performs at Wimbledon, where he made the fourth round last year before going down to Jannik Sinner.

The American hasn't had an ideal preparation on grass, losing in the quarter-finals of Stuttgart before opening round exits at Queen's and Mallorca to Arthur Rinderknech and Learner Tien.

Bolt hasn't won a tour-level match in 2025, playing mostly on the Challenger Tour as he attempts to rise closer to his career-high ranking of No. 125 (currently 179).

If the entire season was played on grass, Bolt would probably be ranked inside the top 50, so he has to make the most of these parts of the year.

The Aussie did just that by qualifying for Wimbledon once again last week, only dropping one set in victories over Harold Mayot, Eliott Spizziri and Martin Landaluce.

Bolt also qualified for Wimbledon last year and drew a top 10 seed in the opening round, going down to Casper Ruud in straights.

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