By Richard Pagliaro | @Tennis_Now | Saturday, October 26, 2024
Ben Shelton saved four set points in the second set tiebreaker subduing Arthur Fils 6-3, 7-6(9) to battle into his third career final at the Swiss Indoors Basel.
Photo credit: Swiss Indoors Basel Facebook
Staring down set point pressure, Ben Shelton refused to crack in building a big Basel breakthrough.
Shelton saved four set points in the second set tiebreaker subduing Arthur Fils 6-3, 7-6(9) to battle into his third career final at the Swiss Indoors Basel.
The 22-year-old Shelton avenged his 7-5, 6-7(5), 7-6(2) Tokyo quarterfinal loss to Fils a couple of weeks ago, snapping the 20-year-old Frenchman’s 13-match winning streak at ATP 500 events.
Rublev on Health Scare: I Almost Lost My Ball
Shelton served 84 percent, permitted just six points on first serve and pumped eight aces in a 77-minute triumph.
The left-handed Shelton is the ninth American man to reach the Basel final and first since Andre Agassi in 1998.
The sixth-seeded Shelton did not face a break point today and has not dropped serve in tournament wins over Tomas Martin Etcheverry, Stan Wawrinka, Andrey Rublev and Fils. Shelton has saved all 12 break points he's faced in Basel.
Hall of Famer and former teenage phenom Martina Hingis was in the house for today’s semifinals.
The Basel final four features young gun shotmakers all age 22 or under. It marked the first time all four semifinalists of an ATP Tour event are born in 2000s
The 2023 US Open semi finalist Shelton will face either fourth-seeded Dane Holger Rune or massive-serving Frenchman Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard in Sunday’s final.
The server set the tone through the first six games of the day's first semifinal.
A couple of unforced errors put Fils under pressure in the seventh game. The Frenchman netted a drive to face double break point.
Fils fired an ace to save the first, but Shelton slapped a forehand return to rattle out the lone break of the set for a 5-3 lead.
Unleashing unsettling variety—rather than sheer velocity—on serve has been Shelton’s focus. The left-hander showed it, rocketing an ace then sliding successive deliveries to close the set with his second love hold.
Shelton played perhaps his best set of the tournament, taking the opener in 25 minutes as dad and coach Bryan Shelton rose from his seat in salute.
Houston champion Shelton cracked an ace, dabbed a drop volley winner and bolted a running backhand down the line in a screaming love hold to level the second set after four games.
Across the net, Fils was holding serve comfortably, often dictating direction of rallies with his forehand.
The 20th-ranked Fils pressured Shelton’s serve to 30-all in the 10th game. Shelton attacked behind a pedestrian—by his standards—serve and mis-hit a backhand volley. Fils lined up the forehand pass but put it into the tape. Shelton survived the stress holding for 5-all.
In the tiebreaker, Shelton double faulted deep ceding the mini break and a 2-0 lead.
Elevating his level, Fils fired a second-serve ace out wide then attacked forcing another error bursting out to a 5-0 lead. Shelton regained a mini break when Fils badly bungled a forehand volley from nearly atop the net.
Fils cranked a wide serve for triple set point at 6-3. Shelton saved two set points, including hitting a slick inside-out forehand to draw closer at 5-6.
On the third set point, a tense Fils shoveled a backhand long as Shelton leveled, 6-all. Fils flashed a 137 mph ace down the middle for a fourth set point at 7-6. A Shelton slice backhand coaxed another backhand error from Fils as the American erased the fourth set point.
Shelton gained match point at 8-7 and challenged the Frenchman with a lob but Fils answered the test with a smash for 8-all. A fired-up Fils hammered a huge inside-out forehand for a fifth set point at 9-8.
Both men amped up their grunt volume when Fils made a delayed net rush only to get burned by a Shelton dipping drive.
On his second match point, Shelton drew a backhand error. The pair exchanged a friendly embrace at net.