Swiss Indoors: Shevchenko saves two match points, makes career-first quarter-final

Russian qualifier Alexander Shevchenko edged out American Taylor Fritz, the No 3 seed, 6-7 (7), 7-6 (6), 7-6 (5) to reach the quarter-finals of the Swiss Indoors at the Halle Saint-Jacques in Basel on Thursday.

In what was a truly remarkable match, Shevchenko has prevailed for the biggest win of his career against all odds.

Quality Fritz undone by clutch Shevchenko

The young Russian saved an incredible 15/15 break points, coming from 0-40 down on serve two times in the deciding set. He also saved two match points en route to defeating world No 9 Fritz.

Despite Fritz hitting 61 winners, just 21 unforced errors, and winning 10 more points than Shevchenko, the No 3 seed is now out of the Basel tournament, with his hopes of qualifying for the year-end championships in Turin taking a hit as well. He’ll now need to make the semi-finals in Paris to give himself a chance of competing at the Nitto ATP Finals.

Shevchenko, ranked No 83, will face the winner of the match between Dutch qualifier Botic van de Zandschulp and Canadian Felix Auger-Aliassime, the No 6 seed, next. The 22-year-old Russian defeated Swiss Stan Wawrinka (6-3, 7-6 (8)) ahead of his victory.

In the previous round of the Basel tournament, Fritz, ranked No 9, won against Australian Max Purcell (7-6 (7), 7-6 (4)).

Basel ATP500, other second-round results (Halle Saint-Jacques, EUR 2.196.000, most recent results first):

• Botic van de Zandschulp vs. Felix Auger-Aliassime
• Holger Rune vs. Sebastian Baez
• Dominic Stricker vs. Casper Ruud
• Nicolas Jarry vs. Ugo Humbert: thursday
• Tallon Griekspoor beat Alex De Minaur (5): 6-4, 6-3
• Tomas Martin Etcheverry beat Andy Murray: 6-7 (5), 6-3, 6-2
• Hubert Hurkacz (4) beat Jan-Lennard Struff: 6-1, 6-4