Ben Shelton found himself in a blunt exchange with a visiting reporter during a Roland Garros press conference, after being asked about the upcoming World Cup. The U.S. is co-hosting the men’s World Cup with Canada and Mexico, the event returning to the United States for the first time since 1994. The American national side sits 16th in FIFA’s latest rankings.

A reporter opened with: “How invested will you be in that World Cup? The U.S. team looks really bad, so what do you think?” Shelton responded directly: ”Where are you from?” The journalist replied, “I’m from Austria. We look good. We look good, I can tell you that.” Shelton answered, “I don’t know anything about the Austrian football team.”

The back-and-forth continued: Journalist: “You should.” Shelton said, “I was thinking that at first you were French, and I would have given you that, because they’re very, very good. Now I’m, like, really, dude?

“I’ll probably be more invested in Wimbledon than the World Cup, but I’ll be watching, for sure.”

For context, Austria are 24th in the rankings and were drawn in the same World Cup group as defending champion Argentina, which is ranked third.

Shelton is also fielding questions about his tennis season. He is the top-ranked American in this year’s Roland Garros draw at No. 6, two spots ahead of Taylor Fritz. Last month he captured a 500-level title in Munich by defeating Flavio Cobolli. That success was followed by early exits at two Masters 1000 events in Madrid and Rome, and a loss to Daniel Altmaier in the second round at Hamburg.

On his form he said, “It’s been super up and down for me. Honestly I’ve been kind of disappointed in my season, and I’m sixth in the race,” he said. “But I think that that inconsistency has been a big piece for me that I’ve been trying to iron out and improve.

“I’m still not the player that I want to be, and I have a lot of work to do, but winning titles and going deep at slams is my biggest goals, for sure.”

World No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka arrived in Paris ahead of Roland Garros determined to refine the small details that have become central to her preparation. She has spent time on the practice courts with familiar rivals and training partners to sharpen her game before the second major of 2026.

Sabalenka has worked with Karolina Muchova and Zheng Qinwen in hitting sessions and noted that improving relationships among players has made those practices more productive. “I feel like nowadays we’re all better with each other, and we’re good with each other,” she said. “We are communicating much better, and I feel like over the years, we improved in that side to go there on practice court and practice with your rivalries and to, I don’t know, be better.”

Her support team is led by coach Anton Dubrov and hitting partner Andrei Vasilevski, and she also regularly practices with other top women including Iga Swiatek and Elena Rybakina. “It’s all because we’re better with each other overall, so we communicate more and we open to practice and to improve ourselves,” she added. “I think that’s why.”

Sabalenka acknowledged a difficult start to the clay season. She exited in the quarterfinals of the Mutua Madrid Open, a tournament she has won three times, and she appeared to struggle with injury in a third-round loss to Sorana Cirstea at the Internazionali BNL d’Italia. “Yeah, I struggled the beginning of the clay court physically, to be honest, but right now I feel 100%,” the top seed insisted. “We did a great recovery. We focused on recovery and make sure that I’m healed everywhere and I’m ready to go. Right now, as I said, physically I’m ready to go.”

The 28-year-old arrives with a strong start to the season, including a runner-up finish at the Australian Open and titles at the BNP Paribas Open and Miami Open. She reached her first Roland Garros final last year, losing in three sets to Coco Gauff, and will open this year against Jessica Bouzas Maneiro. Sabalenka said she will set aside off-court camaraderie when the event begins: “I think all of us are here just for one reason, you know,” Sabalenka said. “Doesn’t matter if I didn’t play a lot of matches on the clay court. I know that, I know how to play on clay, and it’s all about being physically and mentally healthy, to go for it, and to be ready to fight.

The French Tennis Federation’s decision to retain human line umpires at Roland Garros in 2026 has refocused attention on electronic line-calling on clay. Electronic line-calling is mandatory at all ATP and WTA tournaments above the 250 level but remains optional for Grand Slam events. The most persistent complaint is the absence of an appeal process when an automated call appears incorrect.

“The French gonna be French.” That pithy reaction has accompanied the federation’s stance in prior years, but a string of high-profile incidents at clay events has sharpened the argument. Pundits and officials point to the ground-up red brick top dressing as loose and granular and the underlying clay soft. Ball marks on clay are variable and imprecise compared with hard courts or grass; their shapes differ like fingerprints. Players describe the effect as Hawkeye Roulette because the cameras cannot be challenged.

The controversy surfaced at the Madrid Masters when No. 2 ranked Elena Rybakina disputed an ELC ace called against Zheng Qinwen. At an important moment in her third-round match Rybakina approached the net and gestured at the mark. “This is not a joke,” she said. “The system is wrong. It is not touching (the line) It is absolutely wrong.” She invited Julie Kjendlie, the chair umpire, to come down and see for herself. “Now that we have ELC,” Kendjlie told the player, “that’s what I have to go with.” Rybakina later told reporters the ace was a “stolen point,” and that she had “no trust” in the technology.

Alexander Zverev has also been vocal. In Madrid the ATP No. 3 stopped play when a Terence Atmane forehand sailed beyond the baseline and no call followed; Zverev flung out his arms and demanded: “How it is possible?” When the chair would not overrule the system he said, “Then [you] should be allowed to come down to see the bite if there is a mistake like this.” I still think that [electronic line-calling is] the right way to go forward. Alexander Zverev

Others felt rebuffed as well: Luciano Darderi was denied a mark inspection and lost to Francisco Cerundolo in Madrid. The draft record notes earlier ELC-era controversies, including Roger Federer famously losing numerous challenges to Hawk-Eye. Taken together, the episodes argue for revisiting the ironclad rules that bar chair umpires from overruling machines on clay while preserving the benefits of electronic calling. The debate also raises off-court issues: lost clothing-deal revenue tied to line umpires and concerns about the recruitment pipeline for future chair umpires.