Basel, Oct 23: Swiss wildcard Ivo Heuberger toppled eighth-seeded Alex Corretja 6-4, 5-7, 6-1 Tuesday in the opening round of the $1 million Basel Swiss Indoors. "I'm really happy with the win," Heuberger said. "I'm feeling really good. I've been hitting the ball well the last two weeks in training and I'm glad I could prove it on the court."

The defeat was costly for Corretja, who was nursing hopes of securing a berth at the season-ending Tennis Masters Cup. The Spaniard is currently ranked 17th in the race for the Masters. Only eight players qualify.

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Heuberger broke twice early in the opening set to jump ahead 4-1. Though the off-form Corretja was able to recover on of his serves, he was unable to make up enough ground.

The Swiss broke Corretja's opening serve in the second session, with Corretja, finally finding his groove, quickly regaining his serve to even the score 3-3. The two remained tight until Corretja finally broke again at 6-5 to even the sets.

Heuberger easily won the first four games the final set. The floundering Corretja, looking increasingly annoyed, was unable to crack his opponent's game, with the young Swiss player sealing the victory with another break.

"He was trying to be in the game until 4-0 in the last set," Heuberger said. "My game plan went well, not giving him a change to get any rhythm. We saw in the second set he got his rhythm and we had long rallies and he got back into it and took the set. I prevented that from happening again in the third."

German qualifier Alexander Waske won 6-7 (5), 6-3, 6-4 over local wildcard George Bastl, best remembered for his stunning second-round upset of Pete Sampras at Wimbledon this year. Bureau Report