World No. 50 Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard on Sunday overpowered Ben Shelton 6-4, 7-6 (7/4) in Basel, Switzerland, to claim his first ATP 500 title.
The 21-year-old Frenchman took less than an hour and a half to add the title to the ATP 250 tournament he won in Lyon, France, in the spring. He is lowest-ranked champion in Basel since it became a ATP Tour-level event in 1975.
“It’s amazing to win a tournament like this. A 500 for the first time for me,” said Mpetshi Perricard, who rose to a career-high No. 31 in the new rankings published yesterday. “I just can be happy with myself, with what I did today and the past five days. It’s amazing to win here. It was a tough month for me, but it’s always good when the victories are there.”
Photo: AFP
On the eve of the Paris Masters, where the two finalists are both scheduled to play, 2.03m tall Mpetshi Perricard built his victory on an exceptional service game, hitting 22 aces on Sunday, and 109 across the five matches he played in Basel.
Mpetshi Perricard, who defeated two-time defending champion Felix Auger-Aliassime and fourth seed Holger Rune on his run to the final, broke Shelton in his second service game before holding on to take the first set in less than 40 minutes.
The second set was tighter, with each player holding serve before Shelton cracked at 4/4 in the tiebreak.
Mpetshi Perricard easily took the next two points to claim the second trophy of his career.
Both players now head to Paris, where Mpetshi Perricard is to face Frances Tiafoe of the US, ranked 15th in the world, in the first round.
Shelton is to face world No.1 Jannik Sinner if he gets through his first round against French qualifier Corentin Moutet.
When Kim Ye-ji first tried shooting at age 12 she could not lift the gun. Now, she is the world’s most Internet-famous Olympic shooter, thanks to her steel nerves — and Elon Musk. Kim, 32, won silver in the women’s 10m air pistol at the Paris Olympics this summer and captured the Internet’s attention with her nonchalant cool. However, she said she fell into her sport by accident. When her middle-school teacher asked for volunteers to try shooting, Kim did not raise her hand, but was selected anyway. Despite being too small to hoist the pistol, she was hooked. “I thought it looked
Although Shohei Ohtani’s first trip to the Major League Baseball (MLB) World Series is a global sports event, it is particularly big in Japan. Fans from Ohtani’s home nation bought more World Series tickets for the first two games than from anywhere outside North America, ticket broker StubHub said. Dodger Stadium was packed to the rafters on Friday night for the start of the Los Angeles Dodgers’ showdown with the New York Yankees. “Ohtani’s first season with the Dodgers drew big international appeal, especially from his home country of Japan,” StubHub spokesperson Adam Budelli said. “At the beginning of the season, buyers from
LISBON UPSET: Feyenoord’s coach said that his players might not have realized what they had achieved in winning away against Portuguese giants SL Benfica MANCHESTER, England, and LISBON Erling Haaland on Wednesday scored an outrageous backheel volley in the UEFA Champions League to issue a timely reminder of his own credentials as a potential Ballon d’Or winner. A day after Vinicius Junior hit a hat-trick for Real Madrid, Haaland scored an early contender for goal of the season with his acrobatic effort in Manchester City’s 5-0 win against Sparta Prague. Vinicius Junior is the favorite to win soccer’s most prestigious individual prize, which is to be presented at a gala ceremony in Paris on Monday, but Haaland, who was runner-up to Lionel Messi for last year’s award,
STAR IN DOUBT: After partially dislocating his shoulder in a feetfirst slide into second base, the status of Japanese slugger Ohtani is uncertain for Game 3 as he undergoes tests Yoshinobu Yamamoto on Saturday walked back to his dugout and made the slightest tip of his cap to cheering fans. He left Japan for moments like this, an opportunity to put the Los Angeles Dodgers in control of the World Series. Yamamoto allowed one hit over 6-1/3 innings and Freddie Freeman homered for the second straight night as Los Angeles beat the New York Yankees 4-2 for a 2-0 Series lead. However, the Dodgers head to New York uncertain whether Shohei Ohtani can play after their biggest star partially dislocated his left shoulder on a slide at second base. “We’re going to get
RSS