Djokovic Beats Humbert in Basel Comeback to Keep Turin Alive

By TaazaPulse News Desk · Published: 29 October 2026 · TaazaPulse International Desk

Novak Djokovic marked his return to Basel after 15 years with the kind of win his season needed: a 4-6, 6-3, 6-4 comeback over France's Ugo Humbert at the Swiss Indoors on Wednesday, in two hours and 29 minutes, that keeps his bid for the ATP Finals in Turin alive. The 39-year-old, back at the tournament he won in 2009, saved five of the six break points he faced and called it himself: "Super tight match — I had to weather the storm."

The stakes were unusually concrete for a first-round match. Djokovic arrived in Basel — on a wildcard, at an event he last played in 2011 — sitting outside the places for the season-ending ATP Finals, an event he has won a record seven times. With the Paris Masters still to come, every win this week is rankings oxygen. Humbert, ranked 38th and one of the tour's most dangerous indoor players, was close to the toughest draw available. For a set and a half, he played like it.

Humbert's storm, Djokovic's weather

Humbert controlled the opening set with the flat, early ball-striking that makes him so awkward indoors, taking it 6-4 while Djokovic failed to manufacture a single break. The Frenchman finished the match with 12 aces and 39 winners — the profile of a player who dictated the evening's terms for long stretches. The turning point came at the start of the second set: Djokovic saved two break points in his opening service game, immediately broke for 2-0, and the match's centre of gravity shifted. Humbert, trailing 4-1 in the set, took a medical timeout for an apparent back problem, and although he kept fighting to the end of a third set, the initiative never returned to him.

Djokovic's numbers tell the story of the comeback: 73 per cent of first serves landed, nine aces, five of six break points saved, and only 24 unforced errors against Humbert's 39. He broke once in each of the last two sets, the decisive break in the third coming for 3-2, and served the match out to reach the last 16. It was his 20th tour-level win of the year, and it lifted him back into the world's top 10.

Basel, 2009 and the long way back

There is history in this building for Djokovic. He won the Basel title on his debut in 2009, beating Roger Federer in the final — the Swiss maestro in his own hometown, at an event Federer would come to own. Djokovic has not played the Swiss Indoors since 2011, which makes this week's return, 15 years on and as the only former champion left in the draw, a piece of scheduling with genuine sentiment in it. His Basel record now stands at 13 wins and two defeats. And there is symmetry in the target: a title this week would be the 103rd of his career, drawing him level with Federer for second place on the Open Era list, behind only Jimmy Connors.

"It was really tough for a set and a half," Djokovic said in his on-court interview. "I managed to find my rhythm in the beginning of the second, saved some break points, crucial at the beginning of the second set. After that, I started feeling a little more comfortable with his tempo. A huge challenge — and an obstacle I managed to find the solution for." He admitted he had expected rust: this was his first indoor match of the season, his first since winning the Athens title last November.

The Turin arithmetic

The win does not qualify Djokovic for Turin; it keeps the possibility breathing. He is chasing the eighth and final place in the Race, held by Spain's Rafael Jodar, with Alex de Minaur also in the fight and Jannik Sinner already out for the rest of the season. The calculations are tight: Djokovic likely needs to reach the Basel final, and then back it up at next week's Paris Masters, to overhaul the men in front of him. His season has been a study in selectivity — a Beijing title earlier this month, won against de Minaur in the final, but also an early Shanghai exit to Hubert Hurkacz — and it has left him with no margin for a quiet week in Switzerland.

A season of choosing carefully

The other story of Djokovic's week in Basel is the one he told before a ball was hit. Speaking at the tournament, the 24-time Grand Slam champion explained — with an openness that has become his late-career trademark — why his calendar now looks the way it does. "I changed my schedule because that's what I decided," he said. "I need to balance my life: my children, my wife and my other activities. I want to devote more time to my family, spend more time with them and miss nothing, while continuing to pursue my passion and play at the highest level."

It is the calculus of a 39-year-old who has won everything and is now choosing, tournament by tournament, what the remaining chapters are for. The selective schedule is why a wildcard to Basel happened at all: he needed the matches, and the Race points, more than he needed rest. It is also why the stakes this week are double-edged. A man playing to be present for his children's childhoods does not need the ATP Finals. A man who has won it seven times, and who is ten points of ranking arithmetic from another appearance, plainly wants it — and the wanting, at this stage of his career, is the story. Carlos Alcaraz, Alexander Zverev and Ben Shelton have already booked their Turin places; the last seat on the plane is the one Djokovic is fighting Jodar and de Minaur for, in public, in real time, at an event he skipped for 15 years.

One more number frames the week. Djokovic is the only former champion still in the Basel draw — the event's other recent winners are either retired, absent or beaten — which gives the tournament, for its closing days, a storyline it could not have bought: the 2009 champion, at 39, chasing a 103rd title and a Finals place in the building where he once dethroned the hometown king. Crowds in Basel know their tennis history. They turned up on Wednesday to watch Humbert try to end the run early, and stayed to applaud the man who refused to let him.

Next comes Jan-Lennard Struff, the big-serving German, in Thursday's round of 16 — another indoor specialist, another match with no soft landing. Win it, and the quarter-finals keep the Turin maths alive into the weekend. Lose it, and a season that began with questions about his schedule will end with questions about his future at the very top. At 39, playing his first Basel in 15 years, Djokovic chose the hardest available route to the Finals — and on Wednesday night, weathering a storm from one of the game's best indoor players, he looked entirely himself. Either way, Basel has already given this autumn something it did not expect in January: a 39-year-old legend playing like the season still belongs to him, in a city that waited 15 years to see him again. More sport is in our international section.