Find Us At The National! + Grass Title Movers | Serving Slabs #28

On today's episode of Serving Slabs, we look at the newest Grass corps title winners and we also talk about what we have coming up this summer, as it's a huge event that you guys will not want to miss for tennis cards. So first off, we've got some title winners out there in Europe at different grass tournaments. The first one on the ATP side in Ben Shelton. He won the Boss Open in Stuttgart and he beat Taylor Fritz. The defending champion beat him in three sets. Very similar to that Dallas Open match earlier in the year where they played in the final of that 500 level tournament. And now Ben Shelton has won three 500 level titles this year on three different surfaces, which is pretty crazy, all things considered. I don't know how many players this season have won a title in all three surfaces. Um, actually it's probably just him considering the grass court just started and the only other one was the one that Demon has lost into, Camille. And Camille, that's his first ever title. So with that being said, Ben Shelton, the first player of the season to win a title on all three surfaces, and you've got his black rookie numbered out of 10 PSA 10 selling for $305 2 June 10. That's before he won the title. I'm sure I'll sell for a little bit more now. But the thing about Ben Shelton is I feel like his market is a bit low right now compared to where it's been in the past. You know, he's making quarterfinals, semifinals at pretty much all the Slams, losing to Alkers and center. I think it's pretty obvious why his market got a little suppressed for a bit there. He lost to Rafael Colinan at the French Open when he had the biggest opportunity of his career. Jan center went down in his quarter. He should have had a very good run to the semifinal at minimum, and he ended up losing that same day that Sinner lost, lost to Colon on without generating one break point. It was a very not good match from Ben Shelton. But it's nice to see him come back. It's nice to see him get that W at Stuttgart and to hopefully see him have a great Wimbledon coming up this season. I think he's got some big, some big opportunity here at Wimbledon this year with no Alcaraz. Novak obviously lost early at the French Open. I think that Novak will still be extremely dangerous at Wimbledon. More dangerous here for sure than the French Open, given the surface. And I think Jannik Sinner obviously will still be the heavy favorite. But honestly, center susceptible in the high heat and it should be hot at Wimbledon this year. So Ben Shelton, PSA 10 black, $305. I actually didn't even see that auction. I wish I did. I would have bought it if I could have. And that was a great buy forever. Made it. So interested to see how the rest of his season goes, given it's been up, it's been down, he's lost to some bad players, he's beating some good players. So just a kind of a lot of different results for Shelton this year, but, but definitely, you know, pushing to finish the season in the top five if he can have a big showing at the, the two last slams of the year. So I'm just going to jump right into what we have going on this summer. We'll talk about some of the women's results after this. The national in Chicago, 2026, it's going down. It's the last week of July. I believe that the final Saturday is August 1, actually. So it goes into August for The Friday is July 31st. So if you guys are not already going, I'd encourage you, if you can drive to it, to do it. It's obviously going to be kind of hard to fly in right now with the travel and stuff, the timing and the pricing. But if you can make it to the national, please do it. If you're already going, then great. Come to the Slab Stocks booth there. I re. I will review our booth numbers in the following episode. I'll talk more about the national in the next episode. But the first thing I want to do today is just if you're going to the National, Slab Stocks booth is the place to be for tennis cards. Last year we had the biggest tennis setup at the entire show. This year it should be the same again. We'll have a ton of cards there, both high end but mid end, low end. We'll have dollar boxes. We'll even have a box that's going to be either four for a dollar or two for a dollar. Be something like that. They'll include autos number. There'll be so many $5, $10, $20 cards went way harder this year putting together the lower end of the tennis offerings that we could produce, which actually is a lot of really good stuff in there. So you're going to want to stop by, go through the dollar boxes, the $20 boxes, stuff like that. And then we'll have a ton of slabs there. Legends, current players, rookies, rising stars, both ATP and WTA. It's gonna be an awesome time. Last year was awesome. This will be this year will be even better. So make sure you guys stop by at the Slap Stocks booth. There'll be six of us working the booth throughout the week, and you'll surely have a lot of people to talk to and get help from. All of us are tennis fans, so please stop by and talk to us. We'd love to make some deals with you guys and or just chat as well. So make sure you guys stop by the national Slab Stocks booth. I'll reveal the booth number and more about the national in the upcoming episode. So, moving on to the WTA results, Dona Vekic, huge comeback. She dropped outside the top 100. This is the 2024 silver medalist from the Olympics. This is a player who made it to the Wimbledon semifinal loss of Paolini, and then she also ended up having a good US Open that same year. So last year, 2025, though, did not go very well. Not good results this year, not good results to start the year until now. She gets in to Queens Club because of the lucky loser spot. I believe it was the Kostyuk withdrawal that actually got Dona Vekic into the lucky loser spot because she lost in qualifying, gets into the main draw, wins the whole shebang, beats Radha Kandu in the final. Vecic with some, with some awesome results there. And winning a 500 was huge for her. She's back into the top 40 now. So if she plays this week, she might be able to get seeded for Wimbledon, but she might not be seated from Wimbledon. She will be dangerous. This is obviously not a big trend, but $50 in October 2024, when she had some good results, you know, that's coming off of the silver medal and off of the US Open where she had a good US Open 2024. And then you have got her June 20th or June 14th, sorry, 2026, just a couple days ago, $52. So that is a flatline market, obviously, but I pretty much guarantee you if this card sold in the last year would have sold for maybe even half of what it sold for. She had, did not have good results at all, you know, in 2025 and into 2026. So really cool to see for her. She was close to retiring. She's 29 years old, I think right now, almost 30 and, and definitely pushing to win some more before her career ends. And really cool to see her have a big, a big title to her name now for this season. And then on the flip side of that, who lost in the final is Emiratkanu, making her third final ever, second this season. She yet has she still is yet to win a title, though, since the US Open Grand Slam victory as a qualifier in 2021. So there's a lot to like about how Radicanu played. I definitely think that her game's best fit for grass. She seems to have great results there, too, playing at home. She had a nice Wimbledon run two years ago, I believe. Year she lost, she lost to Sabanka, but looked honestly pretty dang good in the match. But the thing about Radicando is that she oftentimes will have this good month each season, and then other tournaments, withdrawals, you know, losing to players that you probably shouldn't be losing to. It's just hard to see her in a consistent form, which is what you need to really become, you know, a top 25 tennis player that's going to be making runs at all these different tournaments to where your market actually can sustain itself. She also sells her way more than anyone who's probably accomplished, um, you know, at least let's say the last three years, you know what she's doing. She has one Slam title to her name, which is obviously a big win for, you know, coming through as a qualifier. Only person ever to win a Grand Slam who did that. But in the end, like, $345 for a Sapphire Rookie PSA10 auto, when just four months ago, it sold for $215. I don't really get that increase, in my opinion. Did she look good? Yes, but I think it's kind of been like, we've seen this story before. She's. She didn't win the title. I mean, good for her to even make it there. She had to play two matches in one day. She had to beat Eva Jovic. So some. Definitely some good results. Results. But I think to see that type of upswing, we need to see much more from her going forward to kind of sustain that. I would not be buying Radicunda right now, in my opinion. Could she have a good Wimbledon? Yes. Could you make money in the short term? Yes. It is a risk, though I do think by the time that the hardcore swing comes, we're not going to see those consistent results. We might. The other thing she has to stop doing probably, is switching coaches so much. I think she's had, like 10 different coaches in the last two years or something like that. But her coach she's got right now is actually the one that she won the US Open with, I believe. So maybe if she can stick with that coach, appear at these tournaments consistently, get some results, then I think we can start to talk about her in this capacity. It's a nice sapphire rookie on card auto, but not a price I'd be willing to pay at this moment. So good result for her. I would love to see her keep pushing and playing like that and make deep runs of these tournaments because I think that, you know, when she's on it, she's got the talent to do it. But with the last two years, we haven't really seen that consistency. Next one. Another tournament winner. She won in the Netherlands tournament that was happening. There's both men's and women's happening this weekend is Robin Montgomery. She won actually via default. So she. Barbara Kachikova ended up withdrawing with a, you know, upper respiratory issue. She didn't even play in the final. And Robin Montgomery one, she was a qualifier and then won that tournament. So a lot of that recently. Qualifiers to winners or qualifiers to finals with Maya in the French Open and her one of one pad auto from 2025. So not rookie. 2024 was her rookie. So sold for $180 June 13th just a couple days ago. And then the PSA 10 non auto sold for 185 June 7th. So a couple one of one sales recently of her from 2025. Interested to see kind of how she does in Wimbledon because she will be a qualifier there too. She won't be in the main draw right away as that main draw list is already locked since before Roland Garros, which still I think is one of the craziest things that there is. I don't. I don't like that at all. But with that being said, that's a reality for her. She's got a play in through the qualities to get into the main draw. And will she be dangerous? Maybe she's a lefty. Um, I do know she's only. She's not even 22 yet, I think. But she did have some injuries, so we'll see. Maybe, you know, she's a player in 2024 who. There was a lot of autographs of her. She signed a lot just like some of the other rookies did, like Mira Andrea and stuff like that. So there's a lot of autos out there for her. It'll be interesting to see if they start to move. I think she's definitely gotta get some more consistent results too as well before that happens. That wraps up the grass titles to start this season so far. There's more happening right now. Men's Queens Club is happening. Holla. Open and Germany is happening right now. For the men, the Berlin Open for the women. Right now we did have a couple of withdrawals from that I know with Mira and Drava and such, which does not shock me at all. She needs some more time I'm sure after the French Open. But one last thing is that you can still sign up for Ultimate Fantasy Tennis challenge. Go to ultimatefantasytennis.com you can type in slapstocks tennis for the pool code or you can type this URL directly in your Google search to get there bit.ly/4o y m qpn and that'll take you right to the pool where you can join. It's free to enter. I'll announce some prizes in the coming episodes, so I'm excited for that. Wimbledon will surely be the biggest factor into who ends up winning that, so can't wait to see and make sure you guys come back for another service Labs episodes. We'll delve more into the national and what's to come this summer in Chicago. So thanks everyone and see you guys in the next episode.