Il Nuovo Postiglione - Blink and you'll miss it: Shelton wraps up match in 71 seconds

The second-round match was halted at 9:29 pm due to fading light. When he returned in the sunshine on Friday, Shelton strode back onto Court Two with one goal, to finish off Australia's Rinky Hijikata quickly.

Four swishes of the racquet later, including three aces, and the job was done, with 10th seed Shelton wrapping up a 6-2, 7-5, 6-4 win.

The official match time of two hours and 12 minutes failed to tell the whole story.

"He (the supervisor) said it was a five-minute warning until Hawk-Eye (line-calling technology) was going down," Shelton said. "That was, like, including the changeover, so there wouldn't be enough time to complete the game.

"I was telling him, 'I only need 60 seconds'. That's kind of what my goal was when I went out there today."

Despite being on the brink of victory overnight Shelton, 22, admitted that switching off had been nearly impossible.

"When you're in the middle of a match, you're thinking about what you did, what you could have done, how you could have been off the court, what you're going to do when you get back out there," he said.

"For me it's what my game plan is going to be for that one service game to make sure that I hold. You can't really completely switch off."

Hijikata, for his part, said the match suspension had not influenced the result.

"Just a little bit bizarre, I guess. Yeah, I mean, I don't think in any way that it changed the outcome of the match.

"Like, I want to make that clear, because I think Ben played well, and he was a bit too good for me yesterday and today."

Shelton will play Marton Fucsovics in the third round after the Hungarian beat veteran Frenchman Gael Monfils in five sets, in another match held over.

E.Scozzafava--INP