Ben Shelton was left bewildered by the decision to schedule Ugo Humbert's match at the Swiss Indoors in Basel the day after his Ultimate Tennis Showdown final in Frankfurt.
Although the Ultimate Tennis Showdown was somewhat overshadowed by the Six Kings Slam exhibition in Saudi Arabia and the tournaments taking place on the ATP and WTA Tours last week, the event was as enjoyable as ever.
After an exciting few days, Shelton won the Ultimate Tennis Showdown after some clutch comebacks during the tournament, including in the final against Humbert in Germany.
The event's social media page also shared an interesting conversation between Shelton and Gael Monfils, with the former saying the thought of playing against Rafael Nadal in his final singles match is a nightmare.
After their efforts at the Ultimate Tennis Showdown, Shelton and Humbert flew straight to Basel for the Swiss Indoors. The American started his campaign against Tomas Martin Etcheverry on Tuesday.
Shelton defeated Etcheverry in straight sets, but there was a controversial moment during the first set. The umpire ruled that a shot from Shelton had hit the Argentine directly and awarded the 22-year-old the point.
However, replays clearly showed that the ball had bounced out first, meaning it should have been Etcheverry's point. That mistake gave Shelton two break points, and he converted at the first attempt.
Shelton's cause was helped by not having to play on Monday after the Ultimate Tennis Showdown final against Humbert on Sunday, allowing him to be relatively fresh for his contest against Etcheverry.
By contrast, Humbert's first match of the tournament against Jerome Kym was the opening contest on Centre Court on Monday. That scheduling seemed blatantly unfair to the Frenchman and could easily have been avoided.
Despite that decision, Humbert still narrowly defeated the home qualifier, Kym, 6-4, 6-7, 7-5. Shelton commented on an Instagram post from the ATP about the match, hitting out at the move to make him play early on Monday after their battle in Frankfurt on Sunday.
"Guy plays last night in a different country and they play him first on Monday."
Although the ATP will never confirm whether it is true, some may wonder whether Humbert was being punished for playing at the Ultimate Tennis Showdown and his recent comments about the ATP.
Humbert said in a recent interview with Tennis Majors that having ATP Masters-1000 events over two weeks was "bul****t." He also felt Jannik Sinner was not thinking clearly when he said players can choose which tournaments they want to play.
In addition, ATP rules also make clear that the body is not favorable to exhibition events. Humbert criticizing the ATP and playing in an exhibition during the same week might have made his match early on Monday in Basel a punishment.
It is impossible to know for certain that was the reason, but Humbert's having to play early on Monday did seem strange. That did not stop the 26-year-old from progressing to the next round, though.
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