Vacherot stuns Fritz to become Monaco's first Basel finalist

Valentin Vacherot's run at the Swiss Indoors continues. The Monegasque beat sixth seed Taylor Fritz 7-6, 6-3 in Saturday's first semi-final in Basel. He becomes the first player from Monaco to reach the final in the tournament's history.

It is Vacherot's first final of 2026 and his first since his breakthrough a year ago, when he won the Rolex Shanghai Masters as a qualifier. One year on, he is again beating the big names in a row. In Basel he has now beaten Mariano Navone, third seed Rafael Jódar, former World No. 4 Holger Rune and now Fritz.

Comeback in the tie-break

The first set could easily have gone to Fritz. In the tie-break the American led 1-4. Vacherot then won six of the next seven points and took it 7-5.

The second set was more straightforward. Vacherot broke at 4-3 to lead 5-3 and served out the match on his third match point after one hour and 26 minutes. He won 78 per cent of his first-serve points (40 of 51) and hit ten aces, one fewer than Fritz, who is one of the biggest servers on tour.

"You just have to pray on the returns because Taylor is one of the best servers on Tour. His spots are just amazing," Vacherot said afterwards.

Revenge and a rankings boost

The win also settles a score from last year. Fritz came from a set down to beat the then-Shanghai champion in the first round in Basel in 2025, and their head-to-head now stands at 1-1. It is Vacherot's sixth win over a Top 20 opponent this season. He climbs four places to No. 28 in the live rankings.

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Fritz had reached his first Basel semi-final when Arthur Fils retired from their quarter-final trailing 6-2, 2-0. For Fritz the defeat is a setback in the race to Turin. Even winning the title would not have lifted him past ninth-placed Jódar this week, according to Tennis Majors, and he is one of eight players chasing the last three places at the Nitto ATP Finals. His focus now turns to the Paris Masters.

Lehečka or Struff awaits

Vacherot will face either eighth seed Jiří Lehečka or Jan-Lennard Struff in Sunday's final. The second semi-final was still in progress when Vacherot finished. Lehečka leads Struff 3-0 in their head-to-head, but the 36-year-old German beat Novak Djokovic earlier this week and has been one of the stories of the tournament.

Whatever happens on Sunday, there is little time to rest. In the first round of the Paris Masters, Vacherot has drawn Novak Djokovic, who needs points in his own push for Turin. First comes the Basel final, where Vacherot will play for his first title since Shanghai.