Catching up with Aussie Open star Ben Shelton, who plays in Delray Beach Open on Tuesday

As far as Ben Shelton knows, his University of Florida online professors have no idea that he is one of the big stories on the professional tennis tour after reaching the quarterfinals in his first Australian Open last month and bringing home $387,000 prize money.

Shelton, whose world ranking soared to No. 42, prefers it that way.

As much as he loved playing in front of big crowds and exceeding expectations in his first tournament abroad, he was eager to get back home to Gainesville, where he played on the tennis team, coached by his father, former pro player Bryan Shelton.

“It was a really cool experience, and the Aussie people were amazing, but since I’ve been back, it’s been back to normal life,” said Shelton, who is playing this week in the Delray Beach Open. “I spend a lot of my time at the University of Florida campus, so I have the privilege of being around a lot of great athletes in many sports, not just tennis, and many of them are my best friends, so it’s nice to be able to go back and spend time with them and my family.”

Some of his closest friends are from the Gators tennis, soccer, basketball and track and field teams, and he was touched to learn they had stayed up until the wee hours, or set middle-of-the-night alarms to watch him play Down Under.

“A lot of people were like, `Dude, I can’t believe it. We stayed up until 3 in the morning, we didn’t sleep, we watched every match, we were up in the middle of the night.’’’ he said. “To be able to hear that from so many people, that they stayed up, or their friends and family members stayed up until 3 a.m., that was pretty cool.”

Shelton insists not much has changed in his life in the past few weeks. He is the same guy he was when he boarded that long flight to Australia carrying a blank passport.

“I enjoy those big stages, big moments, being able to play in front of crowds. It fuels me, so it wasn’t too difficult to deal with things on the court,” he said. “Off the court, the people I have surrounding me keep me down on earth, don’t let my head get too big, especially my parents, but also a lot of UF coaches and friends. They still treat me as a normal person.”

Shelton continues to work toward his finance degree. He is taking two courses this semester, international business and entrepreneurship. Last week he got a 90 on his first entrepreneurship exam.

“It can become unhealthy if you’re just thinking tennis, tennis, tennis 24/7, so to be able to have something to go away to, it takes my mind off of tennis for some periods of time,” he said.

Asked if his run in Australia endorsed taking the college tennis route vs. turning pro as a teen, Shelton said: “Everyone’s path is different. College tennis offered a lot of positives in my situation. It helped me mature physically and as a person to prepare me for being on the road, by myself with a real job. The life skills you learn at college help out here on tour.”

He said his goals have not changed after his Australian Open run because his goals are not based on results or numbers. His aim is to maximize his potential, develop his game and have a long career.

Having a father who played on tour, and a mother who also was a ranked tennis player, helps keep him grounded.

“My Dad wanted to make sure I keep working on improving and not get complacent with one result,” Shelton said. His parents have been helping him set his schedule for the next several months. Now that he is ranked, he can get into the main draws and not have to go through qualifying rounds.

Shelton’s first Delray Beach Open match is Tuesday at 8 p.m. against fellow American Marcos Giron. Other names of note in the tournament are American Tommy Paul, who beat Shelton to reach the Australian Open semifinals, Taylor Fritz, Denis Shapovalov and Jack Sock. For information and tickets, go to yellowtennisball.com