ATP Tour

Shelton blasts 44 aces to survive R1 Basel scare

Ben Shelton powered through a serving shootout on Tuesday evening at the Swiss Indoors Basel, where he fired 44 aces to weather a first-round scare at the ATP 500 event.

The No. 4 player in the PIF ATP Rankings battled past free-flowing lucky loser Aleksandar Kovacevic 6-7(4), 7-6(3), 7-6(4) to launch his title bid. Shelton, who reached the Basel final in 2024, was pushed to the limit across three tightly contested sets, but leaned on his serve and found another gear when it mattered most to seal the two-hour, 36-minute victory.

“I’m pretty excited about that,” Shelton said when he was told how many aces he hit. “We came into this indoor swing talking about spot serving. We changed my serve, the technique. To come out here in the first match and serve the way that I did, I’m very pleased with that. This is how you win on fast indoor courts.”

There was little to separate the two Americans throughout their first-round clash, with Kovacevic looking towards his box in frustration at times despite remaining in control for long stretches. The World No. 84 continued to hold firm on serve, combining intelligent delivery placement with sharp tactical awareness, but Shelton matched him stride for stride and even unleashed four consecutive aces in his first service game of the second set.

Most aces in ATP Tour matches (since records began in 1991)

“I’ve just simplified it a little bit, tried to make it more of a throwing motion,” Shelton said about the tweaks to his serve. “I’m trying to chase the targets more than the radar gun. For me, I fall into the trap of looking at the radar gun and I over serve. I thought I did a good job of not looking at it much today, and the results speak for themselves.”

It was Shelton, this year’s US Open runner-up, who ultimately held his nerve in a tense deciding-set tie-break to avoid becoming the first top seed to fall in the opening round in Basel since 2001. It marks the sixth time this season that Shelton has triumphed in a deciding-set tie-break.

Shelton will next meet Swiss wild card Jerome Kym, who earlier upset World No. 61 Arthur Rinderknech 7-6(1), 6-4 to earn his fourth ATP Tour victory, and his first away from the Gstaad ATP 250. The No. 222 player in the PIF ATP Rankings arrived in Basel after reaching back-to-back semi-finals at ATP Challenger events in Porto and Roanne.

Rafael Jodar continued his push for a debut appearance at the Nitto ATP Finals with a commanding 6-4, 6-2 victory over Alejandro Tabilo in just 85 minutes. The 20-year-old Spaniard, who is competing in his first full season as a professional, is ninth in the PIF ATP Live Race To Turin, 279 points clear of 10th-placed Alex de Minaur, who is playing in Vienna this week.

Another contender for a debut appearance at the season finale, seventh-placed Arthur Fils, also got his Basel campaign off to a winning start on Tuesday. The explosive 22-year-old Frenchman withstood 21 aces from close friend Mpetshi Perricard and struck 26 winners of his own to secure a 7-6(5), 7-5 victory.

Fils has enjoyed an impressive 2026 campaign, during which he has compiled a 37-14 record, including his first ATP Masters 1000 title in Cincinnati, as well as the ATP 500 crown in Barcelona. Next up for Fils in Basel is Alex Michelsen, who rallied past Botic van de Zandschulp 5-7, 6-3, 6-3.

Former Basel finalist Hubert Hurkacz produced a moment of magic that proved pivotal in his 3-6, 6-3, 6-4 comeback victory over Zizou Bergs earlier on Tuesday. Facing break point in the opening game of the deciding set, Hurkacz dug deep in a gruelling rally before stretching out to unleash a backhand passing shot from deep.

The 29-year-old Pole, who reached the final on his only previous appearance at the ATP 500 event in 2023, broke Bergs’ serve in the following game and held his nerve to seal the one-hour, 52-minute win. Hurkacz has now won 11 of his 14 matches since the US Open, a run that has included a final in Chengdu, a semi-final in Beijing and a fourth-round appearance in Shanghai. He will next face Holger Rune in Basel.