Ben Shelton beats Rinky Hijikata in 69 seconds at Wimbledon after final game was delayed overnight

Australian Rinky Hijikata has not managed a single shot as American 10th seed Ben Shelton wrapped up their paused second-round Wimbledon match with four unreturnable serves.

Two-time grand slam semifinalist Shelton needed all of about a minute and exactly four points — three of which were aces — to wrap up a 6-2, 7-5, 6-4 victory over Hijikata after their match was suspended the night before because of darkness at 5-4 in the third set.

"Very different playing over two days and coming out for whatever that was — 55 seconds? — today," the 10th-seeded Shelton said.

"I was hoping to maybe hit a few groundstrokes today. I might have to go to the practice courts."

The American, who reached the final four at the 2023 US Open and this year's Australian Open, was about to try to serve out the match on Thursday at 9:30pm local time when action was halted on court two, which does not have a roof or artificial lights.

The light was fading on Thursday when Hijikata and Shelton were called to stop. (Getty Images: Mike Hewitt)

They came back out to the same stadium a little less than 16 hours later and, after a warm-up period that was quite a bit longer than the actual play on Friday, Shelton began with a 227 kph ace.

The 22-year-old left-hander then hit a second serve that resulted in a framed return by Hijikata, followed by an ace at 225 kph and one more at 190 kph to end things quickly.

"You come out here, serving for the match, the nerves are there a little bit. To hit three aces and take the pressure off of myself, I couldn't have been happier with what I came out here and did," said Shelton, who will face 105th-ranked Márton Fucsovics of Hungary for a chance to reach the fourth round at the All England Club for the second consecutive year.

Wimbledon thriller stopped 45 minutes before curfew Photo shows Taylor Fritz shouts while sitting in his chair on court at Wimbledon. Men's fifth seed Taylor Fritz is left fuming after Wimbledon officials postpone his first-round clash with Giovanni Mpetshi-Perricard despite there being plenty of time left before the tournament's 11pm curfew.

Gold-medal-winning footballer and Shelton's girlfriend Trinity Rodman joked on social media: "Nothing like a 2-minute-long match. Congrats Benny."

Shelton told the crowd: "I'm sorry that you guys didn't really get to see much tennis."

Right before things were halted Thursday, Shelton held three match points while leading 5-3 and at 0-40 on Hijikata's serve, but the 87th-ranked Hijikata grabbed the next five points to extend the contest into what turned out to be a second day.

"It was difficult. At that point we kind of knew we were playing in conditions that weren't ideal for tennis so for me it was like 'what's one more game?'," Shelton told ESPN.

"I understand the tournament's got to make whatever decisions they make and players have got to live with it. For me, I lived with it, I came out today and did what I do."

Shelton said he had had matches split over two days on three or four previous occasions at Wimbledon, which does not prize night-time sessions like the Australian and US Opens do.

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"This seems to be the tournament I usually split over two days," he said.

"Whether it's rain or it gets dark out here, it's one of those tournaments that you've got to be able to adjust on the fly, get used to stopping, starting, re-warming up. It's part of what makes tennis fun."

Shelton faced only three break points against Hijikata, saving all of them.

"A great match," he said. "A clean match."

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