Arthur Fils beat third seed Stefanos Tsitsipas 7-6 (7-5) 6-3 after 83 minutes to reach the semifinal at the Swiss Indoors in Basel.
Fils has extended his winning streak to 13 consecutive matches at ATP 500 level. The French Next Gen star won two tournaments in this category in Hamburg and Tokyo this season. Fils now leads 2-0 in his head-to-head series against Tsitsipas and to 8-1 against top 20 players since July.
Fils has won five consecutive matches against top 20 players. Tsitsipas saved two set points in the 10th game to draw level to 5-5. Both players went on serve en route to the tie-break. Fils earned a mini-break to take a 2-1 lead. Tsitsipas pulled back on serve to draw level to 3-3. Fils claimed a second mini-break to win the tie-break 7-5. Fils got the first break of the match in the fifth game to take a 3-2 lead. After holding his next service games Fils broke again to seal the win. He hit a backhand winner down the line from behind the baseline to bring up a match point and sealed the win with a crosscourt backhand winner. Fils hits 26 winners to 9 unforced errors. He won 88% of his first serve points and did not face a break point. Tsitsipas finished the match with 16 winners to 9 unforced errors.
“I think I served pretty well. I was very focused. I missed a crazy set point, but I am very happy with how I dealt with the tie-break and I think I played really good in the second set as well. I found a way to refocus after missing the first two set points and I think I did pretty well, so I am very happy”, said Fils.
