Tennis fans may need to familiarize themselves with the name Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard.
The 21-year-old Frenchman made history Sunday by becoming the lowest-ranked player (No. 50) to win the Swiss Indoors Basel, a prestigious ATP 500 event previously won by Roger Federer, Novak Djokovic and Pete Sampras.
A lanky 6-foot-8 athlete with a scorching service game, Perricard stunned America’s Ben Shelton with 22 aces in the final to clinch his first ATP 500 title without dropping a serve all week. En route to the championship match, he defeated World No. 13 Holger Rune, former Wimbledon semifinalist Denis Shapovalov and Canadian No. 1 Felix Auger-Aliassime similarly, leaning on his blistering service game.
