Sensational! A Swiss, 222nd in the world, takes out favorite Ben Shelton

Jérôme Kym (ATP 222) struck a big blow at the ATP tournament in Basel! The young Swiss tennis player scored a prestigious victory against the American Ben Shelton, seeded number 1 in the tournament.

In front of his audience, the Swiss created a surprise by bringing down an opponent who was much better ranked than him in three sets (6-3, 6-7 (4/7), 7-6 (7/1) and in 2h21 of play. A resounding success which confirms his potential and constitutes an important step in his progression on the ATP circuit.

However, Jérôme Kym, 222nd in the world, almost lost everything. He actually had a double break lead in the last set and led 5-2 before temporarily collapsing. He was able to raise the bar at the right time and will face the Czech Jiri Lehecka, who defeated Stan Wawrinka, in the quarter-finals.

The Serbian Novak Djokovic (12th in the world), was eliminated in the 2nd round of the ATP 500 tournament in Basel on Thursday by the German Jan-Lennard Struff (47th), 6-7 (7/4), 7-5, 7-6 (7/5), missing the opportunity to score valuable points for qualification for the Masters (November 15-22 in Turin).

In this duel between veterans (39 years old for Djokovic, 36 for Struff), the former Serbian world No. 1 ended up losing after 2h35 of fighting against the German, who was offensive and had a solid serve.

After winning the first set in the tie-break, neither of the two opponents having given up their serve, Djokovic cracked his at 6-5 in the second set, allowing Struff to equalize.

Unable to break Struff despite six opportunities in the match, the Serb with 24 Grand Slam titles gave in in the tie-break of the decisive set, allowing Struff to win his first match against Djokovic after eight losses.

With this defeat, Djokovic misses the opportunity to score points in the race for the Turin Masters in November, reserved for the eight best players in the Race – apart from Sinner, forfeit -, the ranking established on the results of the current year.

“Nole”, who has won the Masters seven times, currently occupies 11th place in the Race, and was unable to take advantage of the defeat of one of his competitors, the Spaniard Rafael Jodar (9th), also defeated in Basel in the second round by the Monegasque Valentin Vacherot.