Tennis star Ben Shelton has his girlfriend, Olympic soccer player Trinity Rodman, in his corner no matter what.
“NYC was a movie, as always. Just a bad ending … I’ll be back,” Shelton, 22, wrote via Instagram on Saturday, August 30.
Shelton had been competing in the US Open tournament this month and was recently forced to withdraw after a shoulder injury. Rodman, 23, had flown to New York City to support her man on the court.
“You are strength and dedication,” Rodman wrote via her Instagram Stories later on Saturday, reposting Shelton’s upload. “I love you, and you’ll be back stronger.”
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Days earlier, Shelton was in for a surprise when Rodman asked the hard questions in the middle of his Thursday, August 28, press conference.
“How did it feel not being able to serve faster than 135 today?” Rodman asked, while sitting with the journalists, referring to Shelton’s second-round victory against Pablo Carreno Busta.
Shelton covered his face with his hands before jokingly asking why Rodman was given “a question” in the first place.
“I just know you like to serve big, and it wasn’t breaking 140 today,” she said.
According to Shelton, his 130 mph serve was because of the temperature.
“Yeah, it was cold outside,” he explained. “I think that was the main reason. I was focused on hidden spots, and I didn’t hit those spots. Maybe I should serve bigger. It’s something I’ll definitely work on next time.”
Shelton and Rodman confirmed in March that they were dating.
“I was sure some people would talk about it, but I didn’t think it would be a ‘break the Internet’ type of thing,” Shelton exclusively told Us Weekly the following month. “But I’ve always been like, ‘OK, if I have a serious girlfriend,’ then posting about it on Instagram isn’t that crazy.”
He added, “I feel like for the past six months, whenever I would get seen with somebody, people would think we were dating. It’s like, ‘No, we’re just friends.’ Or if I’d hang out in a group of three and it was a guy and a girl, they’d cut the guy out and make it seem like I was on a date. It’s either gonna be I post about my girlfriend or they post about assuming who my girlfriend is.”
Shelton further stressed that he and Rodman make time to see one another in the midst of their respective training schedules.
“You gotta make sacrifices sometimes,” Shelton told Us. “It’s just the life that we live. The lives that we live right now and for the foreseeable future. I think that you have to have two selfless people in a situation like this, and I think we have that.”
