Ben Shelton is through to the third—and equal-biggest—ATP final of his career after edging Arthur Fils in a thrilling second set tie-break in the semifinals of the Swiss Indoors Basel, 6-3, 7-6 (9).
The Frenchman had been on a 13-match winning streak at ATP 500 events, which had taken him to titles in Hamburg and Tokyo, and it looked like he might have a shot at keeping that run alive after jumping out to a 5-0 lead in the second set tie-break on Saturday, seemingly on the verge of pushing the match to a third set.
And after Shelton closed in to 5-3, Fils even held five set points in the breaker—three at 6-3, then another two at 7-6 and 9-8.
But the American clawed back every time, eventually closing out the nearly-11-minute tie-break to close the match out in straight sets.
He’s now through to the third ATP final of his career, and he’s 2-0 in the first two, after winning the ATP 500 event in Tokyo last year and the ATP 250 event in Houston—on clay—earlier this year.
And there’s more: Shelton is actually the first American to reach the final in Basel since Andre Agassi in 1998, four years before he was even born. Agassi finished runner-up to Tim Henman that year.
He’s the ninth American overall to reach the Basel final.
AMERICANS TO REACH BASEL FINAL:
John McEnroe [1978 R-Up, 1990 Won, 1991 R-Up]
Brian Gottfried [1979 Won]
Vitas Gerulaitis [1983 Won]
Tim Wilkison [1984 R-Up]
Patrick McEnroe [1994 R-Up]
Jim Courier [1989 Won, 1995 Won]
Pete Sampras [1996 Won]
Andre Agassi [1998 R-Up]
Ben Shelton [2024 TBD]
