Comeback postponed again: now Stricker would need a miracle for the French Open

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Bitter news from Dominic Stricker’s camp. The 21-year-old from Bern, who has been struggling with a lower back injury since December, has to postpone his planned comeback again. After initially targeting Lille or Lugano in late February and early March, Stricker planned to return to the Challenger tournament in Zadar, Croatia (starting next Monday). But now the test of patience is taking even longer, as his father and manager Stephan Stricker confirms to Blick: “His health does not allow him to train fully. The doctors’ advice is: it is better to wait and invest in development.”

Stricker has been in a rehab clinic in Winterthur for about three weeks. But at least playing tennis is part of his training plan: “He is on the court and having fun – but he is only allowed to play casually and not yet competitively,” says Stephan Stricker.

Last year’s US Open round of 16, who missed the Australian Open at the beginning of this year, still does not want to risk anything. It remains unclear when he will actually return to tour. They say April at the earliest. Which in turn means Stricker would need a miracle for a possible direct ticket to the main draw of the French Open. Because the settlement for Paris will already take place in mid-April. By then he would have to get back into the top 100 of the world rankings or face the arduous qualifying journey again.

Construction has priority

Stricker is currently ranked 111th, but will drop further next week. Stephan Stricker says: “At the moment we cannot expect this to be enough for the Paris peloton.” But that is not a priority at the moment: “Domi is still young – and it is now more important to do a clean build than to possibly risk something with his health.”

Paris is actually Stricker’s ‘city of happiness’. Here he won the junior competition in 2020. And last year he was able to celebrate his main draw debut during a Grand Slam tournament at Roland Garros. As a ‘lucky loser’ he slipped into the first round, but was defeated in three sets by the American Tommy Paul.

Now he would need luck before the tournament starts – for a lightning healing in the back.

Source : Blick