American tennis star Ben Shelton couldn’t help but giggle when a fan asked him to marry her at the Swiss Indoors Basel tournament.
The world no. 114 faced Argentine Tomas Martin Etcheverry on Tuesday, beating him with a commanding 6-3 6-4 victory.
Shelton began blushing after the unexpected proposalX:@TennisTV
But while he was 5-3 up in the second set, he was asked a hilarious question from the crowd.
As he prepared for the next point, a fan shouted out: “Ben, will you marry me?”
At first, the 22-year-old tried to pretend he hadn’t registered the proposal.
The crowd on the other hand loved it, laughing as they heard the outlandish proposition.
But Shelton couldn’t hold it in for long, and his face soon burst out into a smile.
He shook his head as he laughed and then tried his best to compose himself again.
The big question didn’t distract him enough to sway his mind away from getting the job done, though, with him continuing to outplay the Argentine and wrapping the contest up a few points later.
The hard court victory marked a brilliant comeback following his defeat to world No. 1 Jannik Sinner in the fourth round of the Shanghai Masters earlier this month.
“I went into the match with a lot of confidence because of the way I have been playing,” Shelton said.
“This is the type of surface I’m really comfortable on and my game is coming together really well. Two more tournaments this year and I’m pushing strong to the end.
Shelton shook off his blushes to see out the winX:@TennisTV
“I came out and executed a good game plan.”
Shelton may have turned down putting a ring on it in Switzerland, but a similar scenario did work out for one tennis fan previously.
Model Arthur Borges asked former Wimbledon champ and world no. 1 Garbine Muguruza for a selfie in Central Park at the time of the 2021 US Open.
And three years on, the pair have tied the knot after falling for each other in the New York park.
Meanwhile, Steffi Graf, the 22-time grand slam champion, had a very funny response to a cheeky marriage proposal at Wimbledon during a semi-final match in 1996.