Ben Shelton braves fog, shocks Andrey Rublev to reach Basel semifinals

Ben Shelton stormed into his fifth semifinal of 2024, stunning Andrey Rublev, 7-5, 6-7 (3), 6-4 a the Swiss Indoors Basel.

The 2023 US Open semifinalist has displayed impressive consistency in the follow-up to his breakthrough season and caught fire on a smoking indoor court, the No. 6 seed shrugging off a delay to deal with Center Court fog to score his second Top 10 victory in two months after two hours and 13 minutes against the top-seeded Rublev.

Shelton looks to have channeled the disappointment from a third-round US Open defeat to Frances Tiafoe in positive ways in the last six weeks, pulling off a strong comeback against former world No. 1 Daniil Medvedev at Laver Cup and reaching the quarterfinals of an ATP 500 tournament in Tokyo before playing top-ranked Jannik tough at the Rolex Shanghai Masters in China.

Down to No. 23 in the ATP rankings, the 22-year-old is projected to return to the Top 20 as a strong week continues in Basel, earning back-to-back straight-set wins over Tomas Etcheverry and Stan Wawrinka to book the quarterfinal clash with an in-form Rublev.

Facing the world No. 7 for the first time, Shelton weathered a strange delay as fog refused to settle on court and promptly went toe-to-toe with Rublev through the first 11 games. The American dug out of a marathon fifth game that saw him save three break points before turning the tables the 10-time Grand Slam quarterfinalist, claiming a hard-fought opening set in 45 minutes flat.

The second set went entirely with serve, Rublev twice serving to stay in the match before claiming the first mini-break of the subsequent sudden death, racing ahead 5-2 and forcing a deciding set on his second opportunity.

Undaunted, Shelton refused to blink and continued holding onto his imposing lefty serve to keep pressure on Rublev, who ostensibly had the advantage of serving first in the final set.

With the score tied at four games apiece, Shelton made his move as the Russian approached net, jamming Rublev with a backhand passing shot to earn a break point. Converting off another strong return, Shelton stepped to the line to serve out the upset and put himself two wins from his second title of the season.

Standing between Shelton and a spot in the final is another on-fire youngster in No. 7 seed Arthur Fils, who edged past No. 3 seed Stefanos Tsitsipas in straight sets to kick off action on Friday.