Jan-Lennard Struff sent his 27th ace down the middle on his third match point, and Novak Djokovic could not reach it. Struff won 6-7(4), 7-5, 7-6(5) on Thursday in two hours and 36 minutes to reach the quarterfinals of the Swiss Indoors Basel, and beat Djokovic for the first time in nine meetings.
Djokovic took the first-set tiebreak 7-4 and saved Struff’s second match point with an ace of his own. He never broke. Struff saved all six break points he faced, and the 36-year-old German played aggressively behind his serve all evening, keeping Djokovic from dictating. “There was only one way to play it. So, I was very, very happy,” Struff said on court.
“The last serve went in the corner like many balls today. I knew I had to play my best tennis to have a chance. Last eight times he beat me very, very easily. So, very, very happy and pleased with the performance.” Djokovic had won their first eight meetings and dropped one set doing it. Struff, ranked 47th, reached his first Grand Slam quarterfinal at Wimbledon this summer and came to Basel off a run to the Brussels final last week. He plays Nuno Borges in the quarterfinals.
The race. Djokovic, 39, took a wild card into Basel to chase a 19th qualification for the Nitto ATP Finals; he and Roger Federer share the record of 18. Rafael Jodar, ninth in the Live Race To Turin and holding the last qualifying place, lost earlier on Thursday, so a Basel title would have taken Djokovic past him. Instead he stays 319 points behind the Spaniard with only the Rolex Paris Masters, which starts on Monday, left before the Turin field is set. Djokovic had come from a set down against Ugo Humbert on Wednesday to stay in the race. The standings are on GTN’s Race to Turin page.
The title count. The loss leaves Djokovic on 102 tour-level titles, one behind Federer’s 103, at Federer’s hometown tournament. Only Jimmy Connors, with 109, has more. Djokovic won Basel on his debut in 2009, beating Federer in the final; Federer won their rematch there in 2010 and lifted the trophy a record 10 times. Djokovic’s last title came in Beijing this month.
The top seed out. Later on Thursday, Jerome Kym, a 23-year-old Swiss wild card ranked 222nd, beat top seed Ben Shelton 6-3, 6-7(4), 7-6(1) in a night session that ran past midnight. Shelton came back from two points from defeat while serving at 5-6 in the second set and from two breaks down at 5-2 in the third, but Kym raised his level in the final tiebreak and closed it with a backhand pass hit at full stretch while running toward the net. He plays eighth seed Jiri Lehecka, who beat Daniel Altmaier 7-5, 6-4. Second seed Arthur Fils came from a set down to beat Alex Michelsen 4-6, 6-3, 7-6(5) and meets sixth seed Taylor Fritz, a 6-4, 6-3 winner over Denis Shapovalov.
