Taylor Fritz to face Shanghai champion Valentin Vacherot in Basel draw | ATP Tour
Basel
Fritz to face Shanghai champion Vaccello in Basel
Turin chaser Auger-Aliassime takes on Diallo in All-Canadian battle
October 18, 2025
Koji Watanabe and Lintao Zhang/Getty Images
Taylor Fritz and Shanghai champion Valentin Vacherot will meet for the first time in the Lexus ATP Head2Head Series.
Written by ATP Staff
Valentin Vacherot arrives at the Basel Indoors in Switzerland as the newly crowned ATP Masters 1000 Champion. However, the breakthrough Rolex Shanghai Masters champion will have to be at his best from the start if he is to make an impact in his debut at the indoor hard-court ATP 500.
Wildcard Vaccello faced top seed Taylor Fritz in a blockbuster first-round match in Switzerland. Following a fairytale trip to Shanghai, the Monegasque has soared to a career-high No. 40 in the PIF ATP Rankings and will be playing his seventh main event on the ATP Tour.
It could be a big week in Basel for Fritz, who finished fifth at the PIF ATP Live event in Turin and is well on his way to securing a spot at the Nitto ATP Finals. The American will face sixth-seeded Jiri Lehka in the quarterfinals and fourth-seeded Kasper Ruud in the semifinals.
Ruud, who is ranked 11th in the live event and himself still retains hope of reaching Turin, begins a battle with qualifiers or lucky losers for the Basel title, with wildcard Stan Wawrinka a potential second-round opponent for the Norwegian. Former world No. 3 and home favorite Wawrinka opens against Miomir Kekmanović, who leads 1-0 in the Lexus ATP Head2Head Series.
In the lower half of the draw, Fritz’s Turin compatriot Ben Shelton will face the qualifiers. The American second seed, who has a 37-19 record in 2025 according to the Infosys ATP Win-Loss Index, reached the Basel Championship in 2024 but lost to Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard. Shelton, who finished sixth in live events, is looking to regain his best form after suffering a shoulder injury at the U.S. Open in late August.
Explore Basel’s street art with Ben Ten 🎨#bensheldon | #SwissIndoorsBasel pic.twitter.com/nLzDah5erc
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Shelton will likely face Turin rival Felix Auger-Aliassime, who finished 10th in the live event, in the quarterfinals. The Canadian hopes that returning to the venue where he won back-to-back titles in 2022 and 2023 will inspire him again. Fifth seed Auger-Aliassime will face compatriot Gabriel Diallo.
Big-serving Frenchman Mpesh Perricard will take on #NextGenATP star Joao Fonseca in an interesting first-round match in the same quarter as third-seeded Holger Rooney (vs. Marcos Giron) and seventh-seeded Jakub Mencic (vs. home #NextGenATP star Henry Burnet).
