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While Stan Wawrinka (38) is still looking for form this spring and Dominic Stricker (21) has to wait until at least mid-March (Zadar/Kro) to make his comeback due to his back injury, another Swiss is getting started. Leandro Riedi had a gala run at Challenger level.
The 22-year-old followed the tournament victory in Oeiras (Por) with that in Ottignies-Louvain-la-Neuve (Bel). He then defeated former world number 22, Botic van de Zandschulp (28), in the Swiss Davis Cup appearance against the Netherlands, losing only in the final of the Challenger event in Pau (Fr). Until this week in Lille (Friday) his run finally came to an end with a defeat at the start against top seed Arthur Rinderknech (28).
‘Lele’, as Riedi is called, catapulted himself from ATP ranking 320 to position 160 within a few weeks. And he can now even dream of a really big breakthrough: his first participation in the main draw of a Grand Slam tournament. The Bassersdorfer has only 29 points to defend until the cut for the French Open. If he is in the top 100 for the first time in mid-April, he is assured of a starting ticket in Paris.
Blick tennis expert Heinz Günthardt trusts that the Zurich resident, who is trained by his friend Yannik Steinegger, who is only one year older, will take this step: “He has the potential for it, there is no doubt about that. When that will be remains to be seen. He needs the necessary patience and must be able to stabilize his tennis.” Günthardt refers to Riedi’s difficult last year, which was marked by injuries and ended with relatively few tournament appearances: “It will now be important that he stays healthy and shows a certain level of consistency over a whole year.”
“Läck, he’s dangerous!”
Riedi is someone who can play tennis ‘very well’ when he gets going. Günthardt says: “His return is great. In my opinion he is one of the best in the world. He can accelerate the ball extremely quickly out of nowhere. It takes him almost no time to do it.
Compared to Stricker, Riedi is “naturally faster”, while Stricker reads the game even better and currently has even more ability to somehow stay in the tournament even on bad days, says Günthardt: “Roger Federer or Rafael Nadal has also sometimes won matches where you wondered how that was possible, because they simply did not play well. Leandro has to learn to get more dirty wins like this.”
The image of the indomitable: with the impressive start to the year, he has already worked hard on it. To this end, he will also get a chance at the Challenger tournament in Lugano from Monday. And besides, he already has a certain reputation, as Günthardt notes: “I don’t think anyone likes playing against him – because everyone realizes very quickly: ‘Läck, he’s dangerous!'”
Source : Blick
I’m Emma Jack, a news website author at 24 News Reporters. I have been in the industry for over five years and it has been an incredible journey so far. I specialize in sports reporting and am highly knowledgeable about the latest trends and developments in this field.
