World No. 222 Kym stuns top seed Shelton after midnight in Basel

Basel has a new home hero. Jérôme Kym, ranked No. 222 in the world and playing on a wild card, knocked out top seed and world No. 4 Ben Shelton 6-3, 6-7(4), 7-6(1) in the round of 16 of the Swiss Indoors in Basel, in a match that ended well after midnight.

According to the ATP, the last ball was struck at 12:41 a.m. on Friday after two hours and 20 minutes. By then the 23-year-old from the Fricktal region of Aargau had produced, in the words of Swiss broadcaster SRF, "the biggest victory of his career". Before this week, Kym had never beaten a player ranked inside the world's top 30.

A wobble, then a brilliant tie-break

Kym started fearlessly, breaking the American twice to take the first set 6-3. He should have been further ahead in the second: at 0-40 on Shelton's serve he had three chances to move 4-2 up, but the left-hander escaped, held on without dropping serve and came from behind in the tie-break to win it 7-4.

The decider looked to be going Kym's way when he broke for 2-1 and stretched his lead to 5-2. Then the nerves arrived. Shelton broke back and drew level at 5-5, and the momentum seemed to have swung completely. Instead, Kym produced his best tennis when it mattered most, rushing through the final tie-break 7-1 to complete the upset.

First Swiss quarter-finalist since Stricker

The win makes Kym the first Swiss player to reach the quarter-finals at his home ATP 500 event since Dominic Stricker in 2023 – a timely boost for local fans in a week that began with Stan Wawrinka playing the final match of his career at St. Jakobshalle.

Kym, who is sleeping at home in Möhlin during the tournament, had already shown his form in the first round, when he beat world No. 61 Arthur Rinderknech 7-6(1), 6-4 without dropping serve and saved all five break points he faced. Afterwards he explained that he had decided "not to think about winning and not to get tense", focusing instead on executing what he had practised.

Fils edges Michelsen as Vacherot dents Jódar's Turin bid in Basel

For Shelton, it is a frustrating early exit from an event where he was the highest-ranked player in the field. Basel's other big names also had a rough Thursday, with Novak Djokovic beaten by Jan-Lennard Struff and third seed Rafael Jódar losing to Valentin Vacherot.

Lehečka, Wawrinka's last opponent, up next

The quarter-final draw has a poignant twist. Kym's next opponent on Friday is world No. 21 Jiří Lehečka – the Czech who ended Wawrinka's career in the first round on Tuesday and then beat Daniel Altmaier 7-5, 6-4 to reach the last eight.

Lehečka will start as the clear favourite on paper, but a home crowd at St. Jakobshalle that stayed until almost 1 a.m. on Thursday night will hope Kym has one more surprise in him.