ATP Tour

Basilashvili, with a game ‘full of wins’, eyes Alcaraz upset in Vienna

Nikoloz Basilashvili is treading the hard yards in the closing weeks of the 2026 season — and to great effect.

The 34-year-old Georgian, a former Top-20 player in the PIF ATP Rankings, has rediscovered some of his best tennis across the hard courts of Asia and Europe these past weeks. On Thursday in Vienna, Basilashvili will put his rich vein of form to its biggest test yet when he takes on World No. 3 Carlos Alcaraz for a spot in the Erste Bank Open quarter-finals.

“I’m very happy,” Basilashvili, who has won 14 of his past 17 matches (with his three defeats including a retirement), told ATPTour.com after his dominant opening win against Jurij Rodionov in Vienna. “I have a lot of wins in my game now. It feels like good confidence. Conditions here are quite slow. I need to find a little bit of a better way to play. [Against Alcaraz it] is going to be a tough match and I’m looking forward to it.”

Basilashvili returned to the world’s Top 100 on Monday for the first time since February 2023 after reaching the championship match at the Almaty Open. He won six matches across qualifying and the main draw at the Kazakhstani ATP 250 event, including victories against former World No. 3s Marin Cilic and Stefanos Tsitsipas, before falling to Daniil Medvedev in three sets in the final.

The Georgian had arrived in Almaty off the back of a semi-final run in Chengdu as a qualifier and a first-round appearance at the Rolex Shanghai Masters, where he also won two qualifying matches to reach the main draw. A man in form, he is nonetheless well aware of the talent possessed by Alcaraz, against whom he did not win a set across their two previous meetings.

“He’s a top player right now, so I need to play a high level if I’m going to win,” Basilashvili, whose two defeats to Alcaraz both came on clay (at 2021 Roland Garros and the 2022 Mutua Madrid Open), said. “But I’m trying to focus on enjoying playing on the court and I want to show what I can do best. So it’s going to be interesting.”

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Clearly galvanised by playing in the big atmosphere of the Wiener Stadthalle on Wednesday night against home hope Rodionov, Basilashvili will hope to rise to the occasion once again for his third Lexus ATP Head2Head meeting with Alcaraz. A former World No. 16, five-time ATP Tour champion and an ATP Masters 1000 finalist at Indian Wells in 2021, he certainly has the pedigree to spring an upset against the Spaniard.

“I like to play on big courts,” Basilashvili said. “I play better, I think, with bigger courts always. In my career I always played good [on them]. I had quite good wins in Almaty. Seven matches I played, and in the end, I got tired against Daniil, in the second or third set. Here I had one day off, so let’s see how it goes. I need to rest well and prepare.”