By Felix Keith
Ben Shelton will have his lucky charm with him when he takes on Lorenzo Sonego in the last 16 of Wimbledon after his public plea came good. Shelton beat Martin Fucsovics on Saturday evening 6-3, 7-6 (4), 6-2 to equal his best ever run at Wimbledon 鈥 and he has put his form down to his comfort off the court. The American left-hander served rockets and powered his way past the world No.105 on Court One. The No.10 seed is yet to drop a set in wins over Alex Bolt, Rinky Hijikata and Fucsovics and will be the favourite when he takes on Sonego on Monday after the Italian clinched a five-set win. Sonego battled past Brandon Nakashima in the longest match of the tournament so far, at five hours and four minutes. And if he is going to reach the quarter finals then Sonego will have to overcome Shelton and his lucky charm: his sister Emma. Speaking to BBC interviewer Rishi Persad after beating Fucsovics, Shelton said: 鈥淚鈥檝e been playing well this week. It鈥檚 not just me here, I have a great team. My parents are here, my girlfriend is here. Also, my sister is here 鈥 she鈥檚 been here for every match I鈥檝e played at this tournament so far, she鈥檚 been a lucky charm. 鈥淏ut she has work back in the US starting Monday. She works for Morgan Stanley鈥︹ The mention of the American investment bank sparked boos from the Wimbledon crowd, with the cameras catching Emma hiding her face and laughing. After hearing boos, Shelton responded: 鈥淗ey! Come on now! She works for Morgan Stanley, so if any of y鈥檃ll have connects and can get her a couple more days off so we can keep this rolling, that鈥檇 be great!鈥 The 22-year-old later had some good news to share with his 1 million Instagram followers. In a clip showing his sister celebrating after getting off the phone, Shelton said with a grin: 鈥淵o, you got the week off, or what? Shout out Morgan Stanley.鈥 Shelton has been loving his time in south west London. 鈥淚 had a lot of fun,鈥 he said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 always special playing at Wimbledon. This is my third time playing on Court No 1. Hopefully I get a few more matches on one of these two big courts. I鈥檓 trying to make my way to Centre Court. Maybe I鈥檒l get there one day.鈥 Speaking about his team, he added: 鈥淵eah, it’s huge, not just being on the court, but we’re staying in a house. To have friends and family, people to hang out with, people my age, it’s nice. We’ve really enjoyed it. 鈥淥bviously [I鈥檓] really close to my sister. So all of us have kind of, you know, been having fun this week, enjoying the off days. The match days the same. 鈥淵eah, it’s been great. It’s important to me. The tennis season’s long. The times where you can get people together to come [and] travel with you or be at a tournament, especially if it’s a big tournament, it’s a lot of fun. I know that me and my whole family, everybody enjoys it.鈥