Stan Wawrinka fails to reach the round of 16 at the Swiss Indoors in Basel. The 39-year-old from Vaud lost 6:7, 5:7 to the American number 6 seed Ben Shelton, while Dominic Stricker was also eliminated.
In an evenly balanced match, Wawrinka (ATP 169) was absolutely on a par with his opponent, who is seventeen years his junior. However, the latter exploited a poor start to the tie-break by the Swiss in cold blood and managed the only break of the match at 6:5 in the second set.
Up to that point, Wawrinka had been closer to a break of serve than the world number 23, who was playing in Basel for the first time. However, the Lausanne native was unable to capitalize on his five break chances, three in the first and two in the second set. The American left-hander will now challenge tournament No. 1 Andrej Rublev on Friday.
Dominic Stricker is also eliminated in the round of 16. The 22-year-old from Bern lost 3:6, 6:7 (2:7) to the number 4 seed Holger Rune from Denmark. Stricker, who had reached the quarter-finals last year, missed the chance of a better result in the second set, in which he led 5:3.
This is the first time since 2005 that no Swiss player has reached the quarter-finals of the traditional tournament in Basel.
SDA