Ugo Humbert took the first set from Novak Djokovic on Wednesday with his left-handed forehand and flat groundstrokes, which the Serbian struggled to contain in long crosscourt exchanges. Djokovic broke in his first return game of the second set, letting out a roar on the way, and came through 4-6, 6-3, 6-4 in his first match at the Swiss Indoors Basel since 2011.
The 39-year-old, the fourth seed on a wild card, described a first hour spent surviving. “It was a super tight match, very intense from the beginning,” Djokovic said. “He was striking the ball beautifully, being super aggressive, taking the time away from me. I was under attack from the very first point. I had to weather the storm, but I managed to find my rhythm at the beginning of the second set.”
Humbert, who has won four of his seven tour titles indoors, took a medical timeout for treatment on his lower back at 1-4 in the second set. By then Djokovic was winning a run of points from deep defensive positions. “After that, I started feeling a bit more comfortable with his tempo,” he said. “Overall, it was a huge challenge. I succeeded in managing to find the solutions in a tough match today.”
The race. The win keeps alive Djokovic’s bid for a record 19th qualification for the Nitto ATP Finals in Turin, which run from 15 to 22 November. He has played neither of the last two editions because of injury. He is 11th in the Live Race To Turin, 319 points behind Rafael Jodar in ninth, which is the last qualifying place this year because Jannik Sinner’s season is over. Jodar is also through to the second round in Basel. Alexander Zverev, Carlos Alcaraz and Ben Shelton have already qualified, and after this week only the Paris Masters remains before the field is set. The full table is on GTN’s Race to Turin page.
The numbers. Djokovic won the Beijing title earlier this month and then took a wild card into Basel, where he won the title on his debut in 2009. Wednesday’s win was his 20th at tour level this year, the 21st consecutive season in which he has reached 20, and his 33rd in a row against French opponents. He is now 13-2 in Basel.
Next. Djokovic plays Jan-Lennard Struff, who beat Yannick Hanfmann 6-4, 6-3 and has won five of his last six matches, including a win over top seed Arthur Fils on the way to the Brussels final last week. Djokovic leads their head-to-head 8-0. The winner meets Nuno Borges, who came back to beat ninth seed Casper Ruud 1-6, 6-3, 6-4 to reach his fifth quarterfinal of the season. The draw is in GTN’s Basel draw preview.
