Basel withdrawals mount as Fonseca and Auger-Aliassime pull out
Six players have withdrawn from the Swiss Indoors in Basel, including defending champion Joao Fonseca and former two-time winner Felix Auger-Aliassime, as the ATP 500 event got under way.
The 2026 Swiss Indoors in Basel has lost six players to withdrawal, among them defending champion Joao Fonseca and former winner Felix Auger-Aliassime, according to Tennis365.
This year's edition is the 55th staging of the tournament, played on indoor hard courts at the St. Jakobshalle and one of the final two ATP 500 events of the season alongside the Vienna Open, held in the same week. Main draw matches began on Monday 26 October, with the final scheduled for Sunday 1 November, Tennis365 reported.
Fonseca, the 20-year-old Brazilian, will not defend the title he won last year by beating Alejandro Davidovich Fokina in the final. He has ended his season early because of ongoing physical issues.
Explaining his decision on Instagram, Fonseca said he had already skipped the Asian swing to focus on recovery. "The goal was to return in time to defend my title in Basel and finish the year at the Paris Masters," he wrote. "However, my team and I realised that I am still not in ideal condition to compete at the level I would like, and that there is no need to rush my return." He added that he and his team had opted to "prioritise my recovery and focus on planning for 2027."
World No 7 Felix Auger-Aliassime has also withdrawn, after sustaining a knee injury during his match at the Shanghai Masters. The Canadian won the Swiss Indoors in both 2022 and 2023.
"After injuring my knee during my match in Shanghai earlier this week, my team and I have decided that I'll take the next two weeks off from competition," Auger-Aliassime wrote on Instagram, as reported by Tennis365. "Unfortunately, this means withdrawing from Brussels and Basel, two tournaments I've won and really enjoyed playing in the past."
The field in Basel this year includes Novak Djokovic, Ben Shelton, Arthur Fils and Rafael Jodar, according to Yahoo Sports.
Djokovic is a past Swiss Indoors champion, joining an honour roll that also features Roger Federer, Bjorn Borg, Pete Sampras and John McEnroe. One name missing from that list is Rafael Nadal, who never won the title in Basel despite four appearances at the event, Yahoo Sports reported.
Nadal made his Basel debut in 2003 as a 17-year-old, when the tournament was still played on indoor carpet rather than the hard courts used today. He lost in the first round to compatriot Feliciano Lopez 3-6, 6-3, 7-6(4), having won the opening set. A year later he again fell in the first round, beaten in straight sets by Rainer Schüttler.
Nadal did not return to Basel for a decade. When he did, in 2014, the tournament had switched to indoor hard courts, and he dropped just six games across wins over Simone Bolelli and Pierre-Hugues Herbert before losing in the quarter-finals to Borna Coric.
His closest brush with the title came in 2015, when he beat Grigor Dimitrov, Marin Cilic and Richard Gasquet to reach the final against Federer. Nadal lost the opening set, levelled the match, but was beaten 6-3, 5-7, 6-3 as Federer, the tournament's most successful champion, prevailed.
With Fonseca and Auger-Aliassime among the six absentees, attention in Basel now turns to how the depleted draw plays out across the week, with the final due on 1 November.
