Third seed Stefanos Tsitsipas battled past Botic Van de Zandschulp 7-6 (7-3) 7-5 to reach the quarter final at the Swiss Indoors in Basel. Tsitsipas won 76% of his net points.
Van de Zandschulp earned an early break in the first game of the opening game, but Tsitsipas broke straight back in the second game. Tsitsipas saved a break point in both the third and eleventh games before racing out to a 5-0 lead with two mini-breaks in the tie-break. Van de Zandschulp pulled one of the mini-breaks back, but Tsitsipas won the final two points with a mini-break to win the tie-break 7-3.
Van de Zandscchulp was not able to convert the single break point he earned in the second set. Tsitsipas broke serve in the 11th game to take a 6-5 lead and served out the win on his first match point in the next game.
Tsitsipas is currently 12th in the ATP Live Race to Turin , 745 points behind eighth placed Andrey Rublev.
“I had to stay calm. In those tight moments, and it worked very well. There were a lot of of tense moments in my last two matches, so I am trying to build up on that confidence, getting to play those pressure points the best I can. It became critical in a lot of moments. Despite winning the first set, he was not really backing down, he was not giving me the space I was looking for. I would say the second set was even more challenging and tough to play than the first one. It was not an incredible game by myself at 5-5 in the second set. I managed those points with great athleticism and defended well”, said Tsitsipas.
Tsitsipas set up a quarter final match against Arthur Fils, who beats Pedro Martinez 7-5 6-3.
Ben Shelton beats Stan Wawrinka 7-6 (7-2) 7-5 with one break to reach the quarter finals at the Swiss Indoors in Basel. Wawrinka was not able to convert any of his five break points.
Shelton saved two break points in the seventh game and one more chance in the ninth game. Both players went on serve en route to the tie-break. Shelton earned two mini-breaks to win the tie-break 7-2.
Shelton fended off two more break points in the eighth game to hold serve at deuce. The US player converted his only break point in the 11th game and served out the win on his first match point.
