Valentin Vacherot Rallies Past Lehecka for Basel Title

Valentin Vacherot got blitzed in the first set and still walked off with the trophy. The unseeded player from Monaco came back to beat eighth seed Jiri Lehecka 2-6, 6-3, 6-3 on Sunday to win the Basel title at the Swiss Indoors.

It is only the second ATP title of his career, and he is now two-for-two in tour finals. The first came a year ago at the Shanghai Masters, when he came out of nowhere to win a Masters 1000. Now he is also the first player from Monaco to ever win in Basel, which is a pretty great line to add to the resume.

How Vacherot Flipped the Final

The start was ugly. Lehecka was serving bombs and took the opening set 6-2, and for a few games it looked like the Czech was going to cruise. He finished with 13 aces to Vacherot's 8.

Then Vacherot settled in. He won 57% of his return points on Lehecka's second serve, took the second set 6-3 and kept the pressure on in the third. The stat that decided it was break points. Vacherot converted 4 of his 7 chances and saved 7 of the 10 he faced. Lehecka just could not cash in when he had openings.

The whole thing took 1 hour and 54 minutes, and once Vacherot grabbed the momentum in the second set, Lehecka never got it back.

A Revenge Win and a Big Week

This one had some history. Lehecka beat Vacherot 6-4, 6-2 in the Tokyo semifinals back on Oct. 5, so Vacherot got a little payback with a title on the line.

His route through Basel was no joke either. He took out Holger Rune in the quarterfinals, then beat Taylor Fritz 7-6(5), 6-3 in the semis. Ranked No. 31 coming in, he beat the No. 21 player in the world in the final after taking out a top-15 American in the semis. That is how you build a case that Shanghai was not a fluke.

Another Final Loss for Lehecka

For Lehecka, this stings. It is his third lost final this year, and he looked in control after that first set. He survived a three-set semifinal against Jan-Lennard Struff to get here, coming back from a set down, but could not do it twice.

He was gracious after the match, congratulating Vacherot and his team and calling it a good week for him overall. Still, a 6-2 first set is a lead you want to hold in a final.

My Smacktok lean: when Vacherot draws a big server indoors, lean his way on break points. He saved 7 of 10 on Sunday after holding 10 of 11 service games against Fritz, and that steadiness under pressure is what won him this title.