Shelton returns to Live Top 20, Tsitsipas wins Basel rollercoaster

Big-serving left-hander Ben Shelton pushed back inside the Top 20 of the PIF ATP Live Rankings with a commanding 6-3, 6-4 win over Tomas Martin Etcheverry in the first round of the Swiss Indoors Basel Tuesday.

Climbing three places to No. 20, the former University of Florida standout joins countrymen No. 6 Taylor Fritz, No. 12 Tommy Paul and No. 15 Frances Tiafoe in the elite club.

Competing for the first time since a competitive defeat to World No. 1 Jannik Sinner in the fourth round of the Rolex Shanghai Masters, Shelton dropped just six points on his first serve and saved the lone break point he faced according to Infosys ATP Stats.

The 22-year-old improved to 38-23 on the year as he attempts to reach a season milestone of 40 wins for the first time in his career.

"I went into the match with a lot of confidence because of the way I have been playing,” Shelton said. “This is the type of surface I'm really comfortable on and my game is coming together really well. Two more tournaments this year and I'm pushing strong to the end.

"I came out and executed a good game plan."

Third seed Stefanos Tsitsipas claimed a rollercoaster 6-3, 6-7(3), 7-6(4) win over Francisco Cerundolo in the last match of the night session. The Greek looked headed for a runaway win when he had two break points to lead by a set and 5-2. But the Argentine clawed back to win the set and then served for the match at 6-5 before Tsitsipas came from behind in the tie-break to claim the win in two hours and 32 minutes.

The 26-year-old claimed just his second Top 30 win on hard courts this season as he pounded 15 forehand winners to collect his 41st match win of the year.

Twelfth in the PIF ATP Live Race to Turin and still with a remote chance of qualifying for the Nitto ATP Finals, which he won in 2019, Tsitsipas claimed his 11th consecutive win against Argentine opponents.

Returning to Basel for the first time since reaching the semi-finals in 2019, the former World No. 3 seeks his second title of the season (Monte-Carlo) and just his second hard-court title in the past four seasons.

Fourth seed Holger Rune kept alive his faint hopes of returning to the Nitto ATP Finals after defeating Chilean Nicolas Jarry 6-4, 7-6(3) in their first Lexus ATP Head2Head meeting.

Chasing his first title of the year, the 2022 Basel finalist is 15th in the PIF ATP Live Race to Turin, 1,145 points behind eighth-placed Andrey Rublev.

The 21-year-old Dane, who seeks to reach the Basel semi-finals (or better) for the third straight year, dropped just four points on his first serve and did not face a break point.

Swiss wild card Dominic Stricker defeated Dutchman Tallon Griekspoor 6-4, 6-4 after firing 14 aces and winning 31 of 35 first-serve points en route to just his fourth tour-level victory of the season.