Ben Shelton desperately needed a strong performance at the Swiss Indoors Basel after dropping 490 points and six places in the latest ATP rankings update, and the former Florida tennis star clinched at least 180 points with a quarterfinal win over top-seeded and World No. 7 Andrey Rublev — 7-5, 6-7(3), 6-4 — on Friday morning.
Known for his left-handed power serve, Shelton has dominated while starting off the rally at the Swiss Indoors. He’s yet to drop a serve in three wins, denying all 12 break points throughout the tournament — six of which came against Rublev.
The match wasn’t without drama, though. Lingering smoke from the player introductions delayed the first set, and Rublev began to take control after forcing a tiebreak in the second. Shelton’s game is built around that devastating serve, and longer rallies tend to work against him. But Shelton stuck to his game and overpowered Rublev in the end.
It’s Shelton’s second top-10 win of the season and puts him just two more wins away from claiming the ATP 500 event. Shelton hasn’t performed great in quarterfinals this year, advancing five times in nine tries.
“I struggled a lot this year in quarterfinals and I’ve lost a lot of them against top 10 players,” Shelton said. “It’s been a tough hump to overcome. To get to the second-to-last week of the year and finally do it is huge for me. Especially with the way I was able to overcome everything Rublev threw at me.”
It won’t be easy reaching the final, though. Shelton faces “one of his best friends on the tour,” 20-year-old Frenchman Athurt Fils, who is coming off an upset of his own.
Fils beat the No. 3 seed Stefanos Tsitsipas in straight sets to secure his place in the final. He’s ranked No. 20 in the world — three spots higher than Shelton. Shelton won his first head-to-head with Fils at the 2023 Laver Cup, but the Frenchman won in a third-set tiebreak during the quarterfinals of the Kinoshita Group Japan Open in late September — a tournament Fils went on to win outright.
Both men are likely to be ranked inside the top 20 once the Swiss Indoors concludes, but the winner of the semifinal match will take a much bigger jump up the rankings. Making the finals guarantees at least 300 points. Winning the tournament would add another 200 points to the tally.
The semifinal matchup is set to begin not before 9 a.m. ET and can be watched on the Tennis Channel.
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This article originally appeared on Gators Wire: Ben Shelton upsets top seed at Swiss Indoors, advances to semifinal
