Bryan Shelton was born on December 22nd, 1965, in Huntsville, AL. Now normally, with these posts, I like to provide info on how these players picked up the sport; in this case, I haven't been able to find any info, other than that he was already playing the sport by the time he hooked up with Bill Tym, a United States Professional Tennis Association (or USPTA) coach. Tym guided Bryan through his teenage years, in which he was the singles champion for the state of Alabama during his senior year of high school in 1984. As a result, he received a full scholarship to play tennis at Georgia Tech. Unlike a lot of pros who go to college, Bryan didn't leave school early; he stayed at Tech for all four years, racking up tons of awards, including all-ACC selections for all four years of college, an ACC championship in singles in 1985, and being named an All-American in 1988. He graduated from college in 1989, and hit the professional tour not long afterward.
Shelton had what might be considered a modestly successful professional career; he finished with a career winning percentage of less than .500 (just 104-137 overall), and was never ranked higher than #55 in the world, nor did he ever progress beyond the fourth round of a Grand Slam. However, his career is noteworthy, if only for the fact that, in 1991, he became the first black American male player to lay claim to a singles title since Arthur Ashe, when he won the Hall of Fame Championships on the grass courts in Newport, RI. Compared to the days when almost every tournament was played on the surface, the grass court swing nowadays occupies a relatively short window after Roland Garros, and Newport in particular is in a weird spot: I believe it's the only North American grass court tournament of any sort of import that's still in existence, and it's played the week after Wimbledon, so there haven't been too many of the top players that enter the draw there, despite the International Tennis Hall of Fame being in the city (hence the name of the tournament) and the induction ceremony taking place during the tournament each year. It seems like it would be a pretty cool place to play, certainly to visit, at least, and as someone who kind of laments the relative lack of grass court tennis on both the ATP and WTA these days, it would be cool if Newport had a bit more prominence in the schedule. Anyhow, Bryan won the title in 1991, and repeated as champion in 1992 - they were the only two singles titles of his career.
He reached the second round of the U.S. Open in his debut at the tournament in 1989, losing to the legendary Jimmy Connors in four sets after winning the first set in a tiebreaker. (He never won another match at the U.S. Open after 1989. Whoops!) His best result in a major, however, was by far at the 1994 Wimbledon, where, as a qualifier ranked #120, he stunned the #2 seed and 1991 Wimbledon champion Michael Stich in straight sets in the first round. He won his next two matches in five sets to reach the round of 16, where he fell in five sets to Christian Bergstrom, 10-8 in the fifth. It was the furthest Shelton had ever progressed in a Grand Slam, before or afterward.
Shelton retired from the professional tour in 1997 and has served as a coach in various functions; he coached MaliVai Washington (*ahem*) for a brief spell near the end of Mal's career, and also served as a USTA coach for a year, where he worked with a number of future American pros (Andy Roddick most notably). What he is probably best known for these days, though, is being a successful college coach - perhaps not surprising, given his dedication to college tennis during his own playing career. He became the coach of the Georgia Tech women's tennis team in 1999, and in 13 years there, won three ACC Coach of the Year awards and led the team to the national team championship in 2007 - not too shabby! He left his alma mater in 2012 to join the University of Florida as the head of the men's tennis team there, a job he still holds to this day.
So yeah, short entry today, but Bryan has still earned his spot on this list, for sure. There are any number of talented players who might've made bigger splashes but never earned any titles in their careers - hell, I've written about some of them already - and though he never hit the uppermost rankings of the sport during his playing career, winning any kind of title on the ATP tour is a notable achievement, especially in a sport with a relative lack of minorities. For both his professional career and his dedication to collegiate tennis, Bryan is a fine addition to Black Tennis Month!
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