Stan Wawrinka is coming home to say goodbye, and Basel has put together a strong field for it. The Swiss Indoors 2026 starts with qualifying on Saturday 24 October, main-draw play begins on Monday 26 October, and the final is on Sunday 1 November. Ben Shelton and Felix Auger-Aliassime are the top two seeds, Joao Fonseca is back as defending champion, and a three-time Grand Slam winner plays the last tournament of his career in front of his own crowd.
Wawrinka's last week
Wawrinka won the 2014 Australian Open, the 2015 French Open and the 2016 US Open. He finishes here on a wildcard, ranked 142nd, and the tournament has built a whole evening around him. Monday, which the organisers are calling "Super Monday", has a tribute show at 18:00 Basel time, and his first-round match is expected in Tuesday's 20:00 evening session. If he wins, the second round is on Thursday 29 October.
I have no idea how far he'll go and I'm not sure it matters much. The place will be full either way.
Who can win the Swiss Indoors 2026
Shelton is the No. 1 seed and was ranked fourth in the world when the seeds were set. He has one of the biggest serves on tour, and fast indoor courts are about as good as it gets for that. Auger-Aliassime, the world No. 5 and No. 2 seed, is always dangerous on indoor hard courts in the autumn.
Arthur Fils is seeded third and Taylor Fritz fourth. Then there's Rafael Jodar at No. 5, who the organisers are calling this year's breakout star. Given how fast he's climbed into the top 15, that's fair.
Fonseca won Basel as a teenager last year and comes back ranked just inside the top 30. Valentin Vacherot, Jiri Lehecka and Alexander Bublik fill out the seeds, and the entry list also has Holger Rune (back from injury on a protected ranking), Casper Ruud, Alejandro Davidovich Fokina, Hubert Hurkacz and Stefanos Tsitsipas. The final entry list and the draw come out closer to the start.
In doubles, Marcel Granollers and Horacio Zeballos are the defending champions in a 16-team draw.
St. Jakobshalle, Basel, during the 2024 Swiss Indoors. Photo: Skyscraper2010, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
The week, round by round
It's an ATP 500 on indoor hard courts at St. Jakobshalle, with a 32-player singles draw and EUR 2.584 million in prize money. Qualifying fills the weekend of 24 and 25 October. The first round runs Monday to Wednesday, the second round Wednesday and Thursday, then quarter-finals on Friday 30 October, semi-finals on Saturday and the final on Sunday 1 November.
Switzerland goes from CEST to CET overnight on Saturday 24 October, so the whole main draw runs on CET (UTC+1). Monday's play starts at 14:00, which is 13:00 in the UK and 9:00 a.m. on the US East Coast. After Monday, the order of play comes out the evening before, so the official Swiss Indoors site is the place to check.
Basel isn't the only big event that week. The Erste Bank Open in Vienna, the other indoor ATP 500, runs on the same dates. Jannik Sinner, the defending champion there, has withdrawn, so Alexander Zverev is top seed, with Daniil Medvedev, Flavio Cobolli, Alex de Minaur and Frances Tiafoe also seeded. Before either main draw starts, the ATP 250s in Brussels and Lyon finish on Sunday 25 October. All of it feeds the race for the last places at the ATP Finals in Turin, which is why both fields are this deep.
Roger Federer, born in Basel, won this title ten times, and the tournament has kept its name as a players' favourite. It's also the last big indoor stop before the Paris Masters, so the top names use it to sharpen up on quick courts.
Our picks
Shelton to win it. His serve is worth more indoors than anywhere else, and as top seed he can't meet another seed before the quarter-finals. Auger-Aliassime is the biggest threat, with Jodar as the dark horse.
I also like Fonseca to go well. Defending champions often feel the pressure, but these conditions suit his first-strike tennis, and a quarter-final or better looks realistic.
Quick answers
What channel is the Swiss Indoors on?
Tennis TV, the ATP's own streaming service, shows every ATP 500 match in most countries. We're also streaming the main courts free in HD, with no registration, on the DAMITV tennis hub, and Spanish speakers can follow on our tenis en vivo page.
When does Wawrinka play in Basel?
His first-round match is expected in the Tuesday 27 October evening session at 20:00 CET (19:00 UK). It's the match of the opening rounds we'd least want to miss, and it'll be on our tennis streams page.
