Top sport at the highest level: The Swiss Indoors Basel is an event of superlatives. Photo: Joers
The Swiss Indoors Basel attract around 70,000 spectators to the St. Jakobshalle in Basel every year, are broadcast in 150 countries and are considered the most important sporting event in all of Switzerland: it starts again on Saturday. Stars like Andrey Rublev, Casper Ruud and Stefanos Tsitsipas will be seen at the ATP tennis tournament until October 27th. The defending champion from 2022 and 2023, Félix Auger-Aliassime from Canada, will also serve again at the Basel knee of the Rhine.
The Swiss Indoors Basel are, by Swiss standards, a sporting event of superlatives. With over 3,500 hours of TV broadcast, the Basel ATP indoor tennis tournament in the 500 category achieved a record for sporting events in the country. 80 reporters are there every year and report on the sporting event. The magnetic effect of the tournament is also reflected in the fact that, according to a marketing study, the Swiss Indoors is now the most important sporting event in all of Switzerland, ahead of the Tour de Suisse and the Spengler Cup in ice hockey. The tournament attracts around 70,000 spectators to the St. Jakobshalle in Basel every year. Tournament director Roger Brennwald and his team spend a budget of 17 million francs every year. No other sporting event in Switzerland invests such a large amount of money.
Who will be pitching this year?
The players who qualified for the main tournament had an ATP ranking among the 44 best in the world at the entry list deadline. As the third largest indoor event on the ATP tour, Swiss Indoors Basel has long since earned an excellent reputation among players. The tableau is accordingly peppered with illustrious names. Seven professionals alone are taking part for the first time: including the winner of Madrid, the Russian seventh in the world rankings Andrey Rublev as well as the young American star Ben Shelton (17th in the world rankings) and the French shooting star and winner of Tokyo, Arthur Fils, 20th in the world rankings. Opposite the newcomers are established stars such as the world number 12. Hubert Hurkacz from Poland, the Norwegian and eighth in the ATP ranking, Casper Ruud as well as the Greek Stefanos Tsitsipas (rank 11) and Holger Rune (rank 14) from Denmark.
Die Ex-Champions
While the ten-time Basel winner Roger Federer has long since hung up his tennis shoes, two former tournament winners will be seen at the knee of the Rhine: Firstly, last year’s winner and 2022 winner, Félix Auger-Aliassime from Canada, who is ranked 22nd in the world rankings . starts. The second ex-champion is Marin Cilic from Croatia. Due to injuries, the 2016 Swiss Indoors winner and 2014 US Open winner had not been able to play in an ATP tournament since February – the 35-year-old recently won the tournament in Hangzhou, China, as the lowest ranked tournament winner in ATP history.
Info: Tickets can be ordered online at swissindoorsbasel.ch and via Ticketcorner. There is a ticket hotline on +41 (0) 9 00 55 22 25 (CHF 1.19/min.).
