- An American tennis star did not hold back with his views about British life
- His football star girlfriend also took aim at BBC commentator Andrew Castle
- Ben Shelton and Trinity Rodman have a high-profile relationship in America
Wimbledon’s American power couple have poked the bear by taking aim at two British institutions: full English breakfasts and Andrew Castle.
Potential men’s singles champion Ben Shelton, who plays Jannik Sinner in the quarter-finals on Wednesday, denounced the staple of kitchens and pubs across the land as ‘garbage’.
The No 10 seed is going out with Trinity Rodman, a football player and daughter of basketball legend Dennis Rodman, who has also hit out at Andrew Castle and the BBC for their coverage of her support.
Number 10 seed Shelton risked the wrath of traditionalists as he gave fry-ups a grand score of 0/10 when quizzed by BBC Sport about quintessential aspects of British life.
Fish and chips? He’s alright with that – 7.5/10. A cup of tea? He went for a 9/10 there. But Shelton, 22, did not hold back when it came to assessing a traditional full English breakfast.
‘It’s terrible,’ he said. ‘Nah, English breakfast is garbage. Who puts beans in?’
‘Oh, so you don’t like beans on toast?’ his interviewer asked. Shelton hit back: ‘What are we doing? It’s terrible.’
The Georgia-born hitter also finds England lacking in another sense beyond his disgust over its beloved breakfast.
In a swipe many fans could probably get on board with, he rated the roads in England a 0/10.
‘I think this is the worst place to drive in the world,’ he said.
‘You make the road and you let people park on the side of the road, so there’s only room for one car, but then you say it’s a two-way street.
‘So then you have to pull in and parallel park so one guy can go past, and then the other goes past. It takes you like 35 minutes to go three miles.’
Back in the United States, Shelton’s profile is rising on and off the court as he is also dating football star Rodman. The Washington Spirit forward and the tennis star publicly revealed their relationship in March.
And while she has had plenty to cheer at SW19, Rodman, 23, has also had a frustrating time and she has hit out at how her presence has been covered by the BBC.
She called out commentator Andrew Castle for repeatedly calling her ‘Tiffany’ and for the fixation on her being Rodman’s daughter.
Trinity has previously stated how strained her relationship is with her father, an NBA Hall of Famer who became known for living an outlandish, womanising lifestyle.
Dennis divorced from Trinity’s mother Michelle Moyer in 2012 and went long periods without speaking to his daughter.
Trinity said last year that she does not even have his number saved on her phone, but she fields his occasional calls.
‘I answer the phone now for my conscience, to be like, he needed to hear my voice before anything else happens. That’s why I answer the phone, not for me,’ she told the Call Her Daddy podcast. ‘He’s not a dad. Maybe by blood, but nothing else.’
At Wimbledon this year, she hit out at coverage of her support for Shelton on Instagram.
‘For those who don’t know, my name is TRINITY not Tiffany,’ she wrote on Instagram.
‘Also, for Ben’s matches he has his family there as a support system, which includes his dad.
‘My dad is not even in MY life, no need to bring him up during HIS matches when I don’t even want him talked about during mine. It’s him and his loved ones’ moment. Thank you.’
Outside of these barbs, powerful server Shelton has been in the headlines this tournament for his tongue-in-cheek remarks and jokey relationship with the crowd.
After beating Lorenzo Sonego in four sets in the last 16, he mocked the Wimbledon crowd for their lack of American football knowledge.
Asked about his background as a quarterback in the sport, he quipped: ‘I’m not sure many people in the crowd know what that is.
‘”They use that brown, oval-shaped ball, sometimes they kick it between the uprights”,’ Shelton hilariously remarked.
‘And probably the only thing that’s a great correlation with tennis is the serve, as you guys can probably see. And so, yeah, that’s kind of the one thing that I took from football onto the tennis court.’
His sister Emma has also gone viral after convincing her bosses at Morgan Stanley in the United States to give her another week off to support Shelton.
After his third-round victory over Martin Fucsovics on Saturday, Shelton called on his sister’s bosses to extend her break in his post-match interview.
‘I’ve been playing well this week,’ he said. ‘It’s not just me here, I have a great team. My parents are here, my girlfriend is here. Also, my sister is here – she’s been here for every match I’ve played at this tournament so far, she’s been a lucky charm.
‘But she has work back in the US starting Monday. She works for Morgan Stanley’ – a comment at which the crowd started booing’ so he continued: ‘Hey! Come on now!
‘She works for Morgan Stanley, so if any of y’all have connects and can get her a couple more days off so we can keep this rolling, that’d be great!’
In a feel-good ending to that episode, Emma revealed that she had got her time off extended in a clip Shelton shared with his one million Instagram followers.
