Ben Shelton Wins on His 24th Birthday in Shanghai and Says He Hates Cake

Most players get a cake on their birthday at a tournament. Ben Shelton got a win and a chance to refuse one. The American turned 24 on Friday, beat Daniel Altmaier 6-3, 7-6(6) in his opening match at the Shanghai Masters, Tennis TourTalk reports, and then told Tennis TV, in a clip the tournament’s broadcaster posted the same day, that he hates cake.

What did Shelton actually say?

He said he hates cake, twice, and added that he is not a fan of it at all, Tennis World USA reports. Tennis TV posted the line on Friday as its birthday message to him, and Flashscore’s Shanghai roundup carried the same quote from his on-court interview: the win was a fitting birthday present, but he hinted he would pass on celebrating the usual way.

It is a small quote with a long tail because of where it landed. Shelton’s birthdays keep arriving during the Shanghai fortnight, and the tournament keeps trying to feed him cake. This year, as the world No. 4 and third seed, he finally had the standing to say no in public, on the record, and have it become the day’s most-shared tennis line on a Friday that also produced Hubert Hurkacz’s first win over Novak Djokovic in nine meetings.

Has Shanghai given him cake before?

Yes, two of them. In October 2023, on his first trip to the tournament, Shelton turned 21 and organisers staged a small celebration in the players’ lounge, Tennis World USA reports: two cakes, his father and coach Bryan watching, and photographs of the young American cutting one of them. He went on to reach the quarter-finals that week, beating Jannik Sinner along the way.

The symmetry is the story. At 21 he was the newcomer accepting the lounge cakes three weeks after a first Grand Slam semi-final. At 24 he arrived as a US Open finalist who had beaten Carlos Alcaraz and Frances Tiafoe in New York, Tennis World USA reports, and the birthday ritual now runs on his terms. Same city, same week of the year, opposite ends of the hierarchy, a contrast no other stop on the calendar gives him, least of all a week shaped by Jannik Sinner’s season ending early for knee treatment.

How good was the birthday win itself?

Solid, and overdue. Tennis TourTalk reports it was Shelton’s 40th tour-level win of the season, built on 22 winners and seven aces across one hour and 57 minutes, outpointing Altmaier 77-62. The second set needed a tiebreak, which he took 8-6, Flashscore reports.

It was also his first ATP singles match in a month. Since losing the US Open final to Alexander Zverev, he had played only Davis Cup, where the United States lost to the Czech Republic, and then withdrew from the Japan Open to rest his body, Tennis World USA reports. Rust was the risk on Friday; a straight-sets win over a top-70 opponent who made him work for the second set is close to the ideal return, on a day when the same courts saw Terence Atmane’s racket-throw fallout still dominating the qualifying story.

What is Shelton actually chasing in Shanghai?

Two season-defining targets. He told ATP Media that reaching the ATP Finals again and finishing the year inside the top five for the first time are a massive motivation, Tennis TourTalk reports, and that he knows there is still work to do. He debuted at the Finals in 2025 and lost all three of his group matches, so Turin is unfinished business rather than a bonus.

Shanghai is where the maths starts. Tennis TourTalk reports he needs a semi-final here to pass his career-best 42-win season from 2024, and the draw has already thinned: sixth seed Flavio Cobolli and Andrey Rublev both lost on Friday while Shelton advanced. His next opponent is Arthur Gea, who upset Ugo Humbert, and the section beyond that is the kind a third seed is supposed to own, unlike the chaos around Daniil Medvedev’s disqualification in Beijing last week.

Why does Shanghai keep producing his moments?

Because he treats it as a homecoming. Shelton told ATP Media he had his first big Masters breakthrough here, considers it one of the best-run Masters events on tour, and wants to go a step further than his previous runs, Tennis TourTalk reports. The fans have returned the feeling since 2023, welcoming players at the airport and filling his matches, Tennis World USA reports.

That is the context the cake line sits in. A player marking his third birthday week at the same tournament, now good enough that his throwaway food opinion outruns most match reports, is a player whose relationship with a place has become part of his story. He can skip the cake. Shanghai is still serving him everything else.