STUTTGART/STARNBERG, June 13, 2026

The 2026 BOSS Open champion will come from the United States, as top seeds Taylor Fritz and Ben Shelton advanced to Sunday’s final at the ATP 250 grass-court event in Stuttgart.

While defending champion Fritz stormed into the title match with a straight-sets victory over Kazakhstan’s Alexander Bublik, Shelton spent a total of four hours and one minute on court on Saturday. The world No. 5 first completed a comeback victory over Japanese qualifier Sho Shimabukuro in a suspended quarterfinal before edging Czech star Jiri Lehecka in a dramatic semi-final thriller.

Comeback KING 👑

Shelton rallies from a set down and saves match points AGAIN to defeat Lehecka 6-7 7-6 7-6!@boss__open | #BOSSOpen pic.twitter.com/Oyxq8BYTN7

— Tennis TV (@TennisTV) June 13, 2026

The championship match, scheduled for Sunday at 2:00 p.m. local time on Centre Court at the Tennis Club Weissenhof, will be a rematch of this year’s ATP Dallas final, where Shelton came out on top. The winner will receive €116,855 in prize money and 250 ATP Ranking points.

After being pushed to three sets in both of his opening matches against Spain’s Martin Landaluce and Italy’s Mattia Bellucci, Fritz produced his most convincing performance of the week in the semi-finals. The world No. 9 defeated world No. 11 Alexander Bublik 6-4, 6-4 in just 68 minutes to move within one victory of successfully defending his Stuttgart title.

The last player to defend the tournament title was Austria’s Thomas Muster, who won consecutive editions in 1995 and 1996, when the event was still played on clay.

Bublik made the stronger start, breaking Fritz in the opening game of the match. However, the American responded with a break back for 4-4 and seized control of the first set, earning another break to close it out 6-4. The second set remained on serve until 5-4, when Bublik handed Fritz match point with a double fault, allowing the American to seal his place in the final.

“I’m really happy to be back in the final here,” Fritz said afterward. “I had to fight hard in my first two matches, so it’s difficult to believe that I’ve made it all the way to the final.”

Asked about the possibility of becoming the first player since Thomas Muster to successfully defend the Stuttgart title, the ten-time ATP champion replied: “It’s always cool to defend a title. But more importantly, winning here would be a great start to the grass-court season. I always feel very comfortable in Stuttgart; it almost feels like a home tournament.”

Shelton, meanwhile, proved to be the marathon man of the day. The 23-year-old first completed his suspended quarterfinal against Sho Shimabukuro, recovering from a set down to win 4-6, 6-3, 6-4 after play had been halted on Friday evening.

Later, his semi-final against Jiri Lehecka developed into a gripping contest that lasted two hours and 52 minutes. Shelton eventually prevailed 6-7(4), 7-6(14), 7-6(6) in one of the most dramatic matches of the tournament.

The second-set tiebreak provided extraordinary drama, with Shelton saving two match points before converting his eighth set point to level the contest at one set all. The deciding set also went to a tiebreak, where the US-American converted his second match point to book his place in the final.

“I’m speechless. I hope the fans enjoyed it,” Shelton said with a smile after his lengthy day on court. “The grass-court season is short, so I’m trying to spend as much time on court as possible.”

“A tennis match doesn’t always go according to plan. I lost the first set, which makes things more difficult. But there are many ways to win a match. I’ve obviously chosen the most complicated route every time this week. My opponents have all played great tennis, and I especially want to praise Jiri. He played unbelievably well.

“I’m very tired, but I’m looking forward to playing Taylor in our second final of the year. He’s one of the top players in the United States, and every time we play each other it’s a lot of fun. I hope the fans come back in great numbers tomorrow and are just as loud as they were today.”

Hanfmann and Struff Reach Doubles Final

In Sunday’s doubles final, Germany’s Yannick Hanfmann and Jan-Lennard Struff will face Daniil Glinka and Stefanos Sakellaridis.

The Estonian-Greek pairing caused an upset in the semi-finals by defeating top seeds Francisco Cabral of Portugal and Nikola Mektic of Croatia 2-6, 6-4, 10-5 in a match tiebreak.

Glinka and Sakellaridis only entered the doubles draw after Tommy Paul and Ben Shelton withdrew due to a neck injury suffered by Paul. Earlier in the tournament, they had also defeated Germany’s Jakob Schnaitter and Mark Wallner in the opening round.