Basel Update: Aliassime and Ruud Withdraw, Impacting Finals Hopes; Fonseca Advances to Semifinals

Canadian athlete Aliassime holds the ninth position on the PIF ATP Turin Finals live rankings, 340 points behind the eighth-place Musetti. He claimed the Basel championship twice, in 2022 and 2023.

Yet, during the quarterfinals on Friday, Aliassime’s hopes for the ATP Finals were dashed as he lost the opening set to Munar and had to withdraw halfway through the match.

After 45 minutes of play, Aliassime trailed 3-6 and then walked to the net to concede the match.

Last week, Aliassime won the Brussels tournament, which boosted him to ninth on the PIF ATP Turin Finals live leaderboard. He currently trails eighth-ranked Musetti—the final qualifier for the Finals—by 340 points. Musetti is scheduled to face Moutet in the Vienna quarterfinals later on Friday evening.

Aliassime qualified for the year-end Finals in 2022 and aims to make his second appearance at this prestigious event. This season, he holds a 43-21 win-loss record and plans to compete next week at the Rolex Paris Masters.

João Fonseca, who did not participate in the Asian swing, took the court after Aliassime’s match against Munar ended. He defeated the 9th seed Shapovalov. When Fonseca led 3-6, 6-3, 4-1, Shapovalov approached the Brazilian, shook hands, and retired from the match.

This marks Fonseca’s second time reaching the tour-level semifinals this season and his first at an ATP 500 event. The 19-year-old won his first tour title earlier this year in Buenos Aires and currently holds a 23-15 record this season. Fonseca is the second youngest player of this century to reach Basel’s semifinals and will face Munar on Saturday.

Hugo Humbert continued his strong week by defeating American Reilly Opelka 7-6(0), 6-4. Remarkably, Opelka failed to score a single point in the tiebreak, an unusual occurrence for a big server.

Since the start of 2024, French player Humbert has won 22 indoor matches, leading the tour in this category, including two titles at the Marseille event. Additionally, he reached finals last November in Paris and recently in Stockholm.

Humbert will next face the 8th seed Davidovich Fokina.

Earlier, Davidovich Fokina won the first set 7-6(1) against 4th seed Ruud, who then retired due to an ankle injury. This advancement marks Davidovich Fokina’s sixth semifinal appearance this season. Ruud had been on a six-match winning streak, including last week’s ATP 250 Stockholm title.

Among the four quarterfinal matches, three players retired mid-match, which is somewhat unusual. Especially Ruud and Aliassime—are they leaving a chance for Medvedev, who was eliminated in Vienna’s second round and also chasing a Finals spot? Meanwhile, Deminal and Musetti advanced smoothly to Vienna’s semifinals, leaving limited opportunities for others.

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