Basel
Humbert beats top seed Fritz in Basel
Auger-Aliassime builds on success in Basel, Turin hopeful Sheldon falls short
October 23, 2025
Basel Swiss Indoors
Ugo Humbert is vying for his second Tour-level title in 2025 at the Basel Indoors in Switzerland.
Andy West
Ugo Humbert emphasized his mastery of indoor conditions at the Basel Indoors in Switzerland on Thursday night.
The Frenchman defeated top seed Taylor Fritz 6-3, 6-4 at the ATP 500 to improve to 10-1 on the 2025 Indoor ATP Tour. Chasing his first top-10 win since defeating Carlos Alcaraz at the Rolex Paris Masters nearly 12 months ago, Humbert defeated Fritz with a 22-20 winner to set up a quarter-final tie with Reilly Opelka.
Humbert sealed victory against Fritz after winning two of five break points, according to Infosys ATP Statistics. The 27-year-old Frenchman has a tour-leading 21 wins in indoor competition since the start of 2024, including two in Marseille. He also competed in the championship in Paris last November and in Stockholm last week.
Opelka earlier defeated Botic van de Zandschulp 7-6(5), 6-7(7), 6-3 to lock in the quarterfinals. Friday’s quarter-final will be the first Lexus ATP meeting between Humbert and Opelka.
Felix Auger-Aliassime was back to winning ways in one of his favorite places, just when he needed it most.
The two-time Basel champion defeated Marin Cilic 7-6(2), 7-6(2) to book a quarter-final spot and boost his hopes of qualifying for the Nitto ATP Finals. A year ago, Auger-Aliassime lost in the second round to eventual champion Giovanni Mpethi-Pericad, his only defeat in his first three appearances in Basel. Twelve months on, the 2022 and 2023 champion has made no mistakes against Cilic at the same stage.
Auger-Aliassime defeated Croatia’s former world number three with a 38-21 winner as the pair tied 3-3 in the Lexus ATP head-to-head series. Although both sets went to tie-breaks, the fifth-seeded Canadian came out stronger each time and prevailed in one hour and 47 minutes.
Tested but passed 🙌
The two-time champion defeated Cilic 7-6(2) 7-6(2) to return to the Basel quarterfinals.#SwissIndoorsBasel | @felixtennis pic.twitter.com/dyvlhhFy8h
— ATP Tour (@atptour) October 23, 2025
As the remainder of the Nitto ATP Finals race nears its climax, Auger-Aliassime could hardly have chosen a more crucial moment to make it six straight wins on European indoor hard courts. After lifting his third ATP 250 title of the season in Brussels on Sunday, the Canadian defeated two strong serving rivals in Gabriel Diallo and Cilic to reach the quarterfinals in Basel.
Auger-Aliassime, 25, who remains ninth at the PIF ATP Live Event in Turin, is a close second. He is just 400 points behind seventh-placed Alex De Minaur (who reached the Vienna quarter-finals this week) and 290 points behind Lorenzo Musetti (who is still alive in the Vienna draw).
Another Turin hopeful, sixth-ranked Ben Shelton, failed to make the quarterfinals against Auger-Aliassime in Basel. Jaume Munar defeated the 2024 finalist 6-3, 6-4 for his fourth career top-10 win. Munar has now won all three Lexus ATP Head2Head tournaments with Shelton in 2025 (Dallas, Rome, Basel).
Currently, Casper Ruud is ranked 11th heading into the PIF ATP Live Event in Turin, but is still unable to secure a spot in the Nitto ATP Finals. Yet the Norwegian was giving it his all in Basel, ending home favorite Stan Wawrinka’s winning streak with a 6-4, 7-6(5) victory on Thursday. Ruud competes with Alejandro Davidovich Fokina for a spot in the semi-finals.
Denis Shapovalov was the other second-round winner on Thursday. The Canadian defeated Valentin Royer 7-6(3), 6-2 to advance to the quarterfinals against #NextGenATP star Joao Fonseca.
