Holger Rune parlayed a massive stroke of fortune deep in a third-set tie-break to reach the semi-finals at the Swiss Indoors Basel Friday and boost his chances of remaining within the cut for the Nitto ATP Finals.

Having just squandered two match points against Tomas Martin Etcheverry to allow the Argentine back onto even terms at 6-all in the deciding-set tie-break, Rune benefitted from a dead netcord from a heavy forehand strike that left Etcheverry no chance of reaching.

The World No. 32 dropped his racquet in disgust and on the following point double faulted to hand a 6-1, 3-6, 7-6(6) victory to the 20-year-old Dane, who currently occupies the final spot in the Pepperstone ATP Live Race for a place in Turin.

On Saturday Rune will have the opportunity to avenge his loss to Felix Auger-Aliassime in last year’s final when he takes on the Canadian, who also reached the semi-finals on the back of a third-set tie-break win. The Canadian saved a match point to beat qualifier Alexander Shevchenko 7-6(2), 3-6, 7-6(1).

“It was super difficult and Tomas has played great all tournament and had a super season. It was a fun match to play,” Rune said following his two-hour, 41-minute win. “I was super lucky at the end, I have never had as much luck in my life. Of course I am happy to win but I feel for him as I know how it feels myself when these kind of things happen. I am happy with my level. It was a tough match physically, so I am proud of myself.”

Rune is eighth in the Pepperstone ATP Live Race To Turin on 3,280 points, 225 points clear of ninth-placed Taylor Fritz, who lost in the second round in Basel. Rune can jump to seventh if he wins his second title of the season this week after seventh-placed Alexander Zverev fell to Andrey Rublev in the quarter-finals in Vienna.

Rune came into Basel having won just one of his past nine matches.

Auger-Aliassime has also been struggling for form in the second half of the season, winning just three of his past 15 matches before emerging from his slump with a run to the Tokyo quarterfinals last week. The World No. 19, who last year qualified for the Nitto ATP Finals, saved a match point on Shevchenko’s serve in the 10th game of the final set.

“I don’t want to say [I’m back] yet, but I’m on my way back and this is a crucial win; it’s amazing to get through a match like this,” he said. “To be able to come back and recover, that’s big for me.”

Novak Djokovic and Carlos Alcaraz will resume battle for ATP Year-End No. 1 presented by Pepperstone at the Rolex Paris Masters, where the Serbian could face Holger Rune in the quarter-finals in a rematch of last year’s title match following the release of the draw Friday.

Djokovic leads Alcaraz by 500 points heading into the final ATP Masters 1000 event of the season and is defending 600 points in Paris after reaching the title match last year. Chasing a record-extending seventh crown at the hard-court event, Djokovic will play Miomir Kecmanovic or Tomas Martin Etcheverry in his opening match and could play Tokyo champion Ben Shelton in the third round. Italian Jannik Sinner is a potential semi-final opponent.

Alcaraz is the second seed and is defending 180 points after withdrawing during his quarter-final match against Rune. The Spaniard is chasing a second consecutive ATP Year-End No. 1 presented by Pepperstone finish and starts against Cameron Norrie or Alexandre Muller. The 16th seed Karan Khachanov is a potential third-round opponent, while he could meet Stefanos Tsitsipas or Alexander Zverev in the quarter-finals. Third seed Daniil Medvedev is in Alcaraz’s half.

Tsitsipas and Zverev are currently sixth and seventh, respectively, in the Pepperstone ATP Live Race To Turin and are chasing qualification spots at the Nitto ATP Finals. Tsitsipas plays Felix Auger-Aliassime or Jan-Lennard Struff in his first match, while Zverev plays Frenchman Ugo Humbert or a qualifier. Both will seek deep runs to help boost their Turin hopes, with three qualification spots still up for grabs.

Behind them, Rune is currently occupying the final qualification spot in eighth. The 20-year-old Dane won his maiden ATP Masters 1000 event in Paris last year and beat Stan Wawrinka in three sets en route. Rune could face Wawrinka in his opening match again this year, with the former World No. 3 Swiss star starting against Matteo Arnaldi.

Taylor Fritz is ninth in the Pepperstone ATP Live Race To Turin on 3,055 points, 135 points behind Rune, who is still alive in Basel this week. The American is seeded to meet Rune in the third round.

Hubert Hurkacz is 10th (2,945 points) and could move to eighth by winning the title in Basel. He will play Sebastian Korda in the first round. The Pole, who is aiming to qualify for the Nitto ATP Finals for the second time (2021), won his second ATP Masters 1000 crown in Shanghai earlier this month. He is seeded to meet Casper Ruud in the third round. The Norwegian, who is 11th in the Live Race To Turin (2,815 points), opens against Frenchman Gael Monfils or Argentine Francisco Cerundolo. Ruud reached the title match in Turin in 2022.

The 13th-placed Alex de Minaur (2,560 points), plays Andy Murray in the first round. The Australian has won all three of their Lexus ATP Head2Head meetings this year. Tommy Paul, 12th (2,620 points), meets French wild card Richard Gasquet in the first round.

Third seed Medvedev opens against Grigor Dimitrov or Lorenzo Musetti, while Sinner meets Mackenzie McDonald or a qualifier. Fifth seed Andrey Rublev will play a qualifier in the first round. Medvedev, Sinner and Rublev have already qualified for the Nitto ATP Finals.

Nathaniel Lammons and Jackson Withrow kept alive their hopes for a maiden Nitto ATP Finals qualification Friday when they reached their ninth tour-level final of the season at the Erste Bank Open.

Eighth in Pepperstone ATP Live Doubles Teams Rankings, the Americans rallied past Frenchmen Sadio Doumbia and Fabien Reboul 4-6, 7-6(1), 10-7 after winning 80 per cent of their first-serve points throughout one-hour, 41-minute contest.

Lammons and Withrow have collected four team titles this season: Newport, Atlanta, Winston-Salem and Astana. They will next face second seeds Rajeev Ram and Joe Salisbury or third seeds Marcelo Arevalo and Jean-Julien Rojer, who are 10th in the Race.

Ram and Salisbury advanced past wild cards Romain Arneodo and Sam Weissborn 6-3, 7-6(7) on Friday.

Nys/Zielinski Upset Top Seeds In Basel
Hugo Nys and Jan Zielinski upset top seeds Ivan Dodig and Austin Krajicek 6-3, 3-6, 10-7 in the Swiss Indoors Basel quarter-finals.
Nys and Zielinski will next meet fourth seeds Jamie Murray and Michael Venus, who were finalists last week in Tokyo and are ninth in the Race.

In the bottom half of the draw, Santiago Gonzalez and Edouard Roger-Vasselin will clash against Kevin Krawietz and Tim Puetz in the Basel last four.

Hubert Hurkacz continued his late charge in the Pepperstone ATP Live Race To Turin with a comeback victory against Tallon Griekspoor on Friday in the Swiss Indoors Basel quarter-finals. The Pole earned a 6-7(6), 6-4, 6-4 win to stay firmly in the hunt for a return to the Nitto ATP Finals for the first time since 2021.

Champion in Shanghai earlier this month, Hurkacz has already moved up one place in the Live Race to 10th this week, and he is now within 245 points of Holger Rune for eighth place — though the Dane has his own quarter-final to play this evening in Basel.

One major milestone can already be ticked off for Hurkacz this year. After notching 41 tour-level singles wins in each of the past two seasons, his quarter-final result earned him a personal-best 42 victories in 2023. Five of those wins have come in quarter-finals, where the Pole owns a strong 5-1 mark, his only loss coming to Novak Djokovic in Dubai.

Hubi heads on! 👏@HubertHurkacz rallies 6-7(6), 6-4, 6-4 to boost his #NittoATPFinals qualification chances#SwissIndoorsBasel pic.twitter.com/bgBd6s86Fb

— ATP Tour (@atptour) October 27, 2023

Hurkacz improved to 2-1 in his Lexus ATP Head2Head with Griekspoor, with all of their matches coming this season. Each of their two previous matches went the distance, with Hurkacz winning in five sets at Roland Garros and Griekspoor triumphing in three in Halle.

“He’s such a great opponent and great guy as well of the court,” Hurkacz said of the Dutchman. “We had some crazy battles this year. Last time he won, he beat me in Halle, so I was definitely excited for this match, to get a shot at a rematch. We just battled and my serve was definitely helping me today.”

Hurkacz fought off the only two break points he faced in the match, with both coming at 1-2 in the final set. He closed out the two hour, 19-minute victory in style with an emphatic love hold.

In another stellar serving performance, Hurkacz fired 23 aces among his 46 total winners. With 52 aces on the week, he is now up to 950 this season, far and away the most on the ATP Tour. Taylor Fritz, second on the leaderboard, has less than 700 aces.

Next up for the fourth-seeded Pole will be a semi-final meeting with Frenchman Ugo Humbert or Swiss wild card Dominic Stricker.

Daniil Medvedev won his second consecutive three-setter on Friday at the Erste Bank Open to advance to the semi-finals at the Vienna ATP 500. The defending champion and top seed played a brilliant final set to clinch a 6-3, 3-6, 6-3 victory in a bruising battle against Karen Khachanov, one day after coming back from a set down to defeat Grigor Dimitrov.

By matching his personal-best season tally of 63 wins from 2021, Medvedev (63-14) moved level with Carlos Alcaraz (63-9) for most wins this season.

“I hope I can get one more, you never know,” he said of that milestone. “Tennis is a strong sport and we have strong opponents. So hopefully I can get one more win at least or maybe more. I have had an amazing season… But it’s not finished yet, so I want to try to finish it even stronger.”

Athleticism off the charts 📈@DaniilMedwed | @ErsteBankOpen | #erstebankopen pic.twitter.com/hK0iJKjEQE

— ATP Tour (@atptour) October 27, 2023

The 27-year-old is now within two victories of his first successful title defence on the ATP Tour; Medvedev has 20 tour-level singles titles but has never won a single event more than once.

Through to the 49th tour-level semi-final of his career, the World No. 3’s latest effort improved him to 11-3 this season in quarter-finals, including a 9-1 mark on hard courts.

Against the eighth-seeded Khachanov, Medvedev saw home leads of 3-0 in the first and final sets without facing a break point in either. In addition to the first-strike tennis his strong serving allowed him to play, Medvedev also flashed his athleticism and his defensive abilities time and again to frustrate Khachanov.

Khachanov had an opening at 15/30 in the final game but netted a would-be forehand winner from midcourt. Medvedev made the most of the freebie to close out the match in two hours, 15 minutes.

“It was a very close match, so of course mentally you have to be strong and it was a long one,” he assessed. “But at the end, one break each set. So I’m happy that I managed to make two, and he only made one.”

While Medvedev has already secured his place at the Nitto ATP Finals, Khachanov’s defeat all but ended his hopes for Turin qualification. Khachanov moved up two places to 14th in the Pepperstone ATP Live Race To Turin this week, but remains 895 points behind Holger Rune for eighth place, with just the Rolex Paris Masters and ATP 250 events in Sofia and Metz remaining before the cutoff.

Next up for Medvedev in Vienna will be fourth seed Stefanos Tsitsipas.

Tsitsipas moved to within two wins of his second title of the season when he defeated Croatian wild card Borna Gojo 7-6(4), 7-5.

The Greek, who is sixth in the Pepperstone ATP Live Race To Turin, fired 26 winners and found his best level deep in both sets to reach his sixth tour-level semi-final of the year after one hour and 51 minutes.

“It feels great,” Tsitsipas said. “I kept fighting and didn’t lose faith. In the tie-break, what a great way to end it by fighting and giving so much on the court. I felt it was a matter of keeping the ball deep and attacking when the ball was short.”

Tsitsipas is making his fourth appearance in Vienna and had never advanced beyond the second round at the ATP 500 before this week. The World No. 7 is chasing his second trophy of 2023, having triumphed in Los Cabos.

Thursday was a critical day in Holger Rune’s chase for a spot at the Nitto ATP Finals.

Not only did two players close to him in the Pepperstone ATP Live Race To Turin — ninth-placed Taylor Fritz and 11th-placed Casper Ruud — lose earlier in the day, but the eighth-placed Rune earned a solid win at the Swiss Indoors Basel. The top seed ousted Sebastian Baez, a winner of three ATP Tour titles this year, 7-6(2), 6-1 to reach the Basel quarter-finals.

“It was difficult in the first set. I think he was serving well. I was struggling a little bit to find the rhythm on the return,” Rune said in his on-court interview. “But I stayed there, I kept my focus on my own serve and managed to raise my level in the tie-break. And from there, I built some better tennis.”

Trailing by a set and a break in his opening match against Miomir Kecmanovic, the Dane was in danger of losing nine of 10 matches and missing an opportunity in the Live Race. But now the 20-year-old, who was an alternate last year in Turin, has a big chance to extend his 135-point lead over Fritz in the Live Race.

Rune will next play Tomas Martin Etcheverry, who needed more than three hours to defeat former World No. 1 Andy Murray on Wednesday. It will be the pair’s first Lexus ATP Head2Head meeting.

“I have to prepare well, and hopefully another great match tomorrow,” Rune said.

Rune showed determination against the gritty baseliner Baez, with new coach Boris Becker watching closely from the front row. The four-time ATP Tour titlist saved the only break point he faced and after breaking serve for the first time early in the second set, he did not relent.

Rune won a higher rate of second-serve points (78%) than Baez did first-serve points (68%) and that proved critical. He is now 6-1 in Basel after reaching the final last year.

The best season of #NextGenATP Swiss Dominic Stricker’s career got even better on Thursday. The lefty upset second seed Casper Ruud 6-4, 3-6, 7-6(1) for a place in the Swiss Indoors Basel quarter-finals, denting the Norwegian’s Nitto ATP Finals hopes.

“Great feeling first of all to win that match, a tough battle out here,” Stricker said in his on-court interview. “Had some tough moments end of the second set and start of the third, but felt really good throughout the whole match and now just super happy. Played an unbelievable tie-break, so I’m just so happy to be through.”

Home hope continues! 🇨🇭

Super performance from @DominicStricker against Ruud and he is into the last 8️⃣ 👏#SwissIndoorsBasel pic.twitter.com/lXLkPrYQK7

— ATP Tour (@atptour) October 26, 2023

After a run to the fourth round of the US Open, which included a victory against Stefanos Tsitsipas, Stricker lost six consecutive matches. But the 21-year-old has bounced back at his home ATP 500, advancing to the last eight for the first time.

Stricker hit 13 aces and 31 forehand winners in the match. He converted just one of 12 break points he earned, but played a nearly flawless tie-break in the third set to thrill his home fans.

A 2022 Next Gen ATP Finals competitor, he is currently sixth in the Pepperstone ATP Live Race To Jeddah. Stricker will try to reach his first tour-level semi-final outside of the 21-and-under event when he faces Frenchman Ugo Humbert.

Alexander Shevchenko earned his career-best win Thursday when he saved two match points to upset World No. 9 Taylor Fritz at the Swiss Indoors Basel.

The 22-year-old overcame Fritz 6-7(7), 7-6(6), 7-6(5) after two hours, 53 minutes to earn his first Top 10 victory and book a ticket into his maiden tour-level quarter-final.

Shevchenko produced high quality first-strike tennis and fought off all 15 break points faced to survive the American, who struck 61 winners. Neither player broke serve all match, with Shevchenko fending off eight break points in the second set and seven more in the decider. The qualifier Shevchenko also saved three of four break points to down Stan Wawrinka in the opening round of the ATP 500 event.

Despite squandering a 6/1 lead in the opening-set tie-break against Fritz, Shevchenko stayed focussed and displayed his all-court game, including several deft drop shots to dispatch the third seed.

Shevchenko again held his nerve when he fought off two match points on serve at 5-6 in the third set.

The result is a blow to Fritz’s hopes for a second consecutive appearance at the Nitto ATP Finals. With less than three weeks remaining until the prestigious year-end event, the American, who is ninth in the Pepperstone ATP Live Race To Turin, is aiming to leapfrog Holger Rune for the crucial eighth position.

Shevchenko, who is at a career-high No. 63 in the Pepperstone ATP Live Rankings, will next meet sixth seed Felix Auger-Aliassime.