Ben Shelton beat his doubles partner Arthur Fils at the Swiss Indoors on Saturday and will face another Frenchman, Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard, in the final.
No. 6-seeded Shelton defeated No. 7 Fils 6-3, 7-6 (9), recovering from 6-3 down in the tiebreak of their semifinal.
“I served really well, and I had to because I know what Arthur is capable of,” Shelton said on court. “The goal was to let him know I got clean hits on the ball as much as possible, and I executed really well. I’m not sure how I pulled that tiebreak out in the second set.”
Fils won their quarterfinal in Tokyo a month ago, but Shelton’s run this week has guaranteed the American’s return to the top 20 from No. 23 in the rankings update on Monday.
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Mpetshi Perricard is set to improve his career-high 37th ranking after reaching his second final of a breakthrough year.
The unseeded Mpetshi Perricard upset No. 4-seeded Holger Rune 7-6 (6), 6-4 by serving 17 aces. He’s yet to lose serve in Basel.
“Inside of me there was a lot of emotion, but I tried to calm it down,” he said. “It’s nice to be in the final and I hope to get the win.”
Mpetshi Perricard started the year ranked 200, won a bunch of challenger titles, and won his first ATP-level title in Lyon in May. He beat Shelton in their only previous meeting in June on grass at Queen’s Club.
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