Junior triumph and now Grand Slam premiere: Paris is Stricker’s happy city

class=”sc-29f61514-0 kHgAwW”>

Now he can laugh about it. The day and a half since his defeat in the third qualifying round until the draw of the “Lucky Loser” Dominic Stricker (20) felt like an eternity. “After the sporting out, the atmosphere in the team was not exactly incredibly good,” he jokes diplomatically.

But that suddenly changed on Friday evening at 6 p.m. “I was in my room when I suddenly got a ‘You’re in’ from ATP via Whatsapp – of course we celebrated afterwards.”

Stricker goes out to dinner in Paris with Mama Sabine, Papa Stephan and coach Dieter “Didi” Kindlmann. Relieved and thankful for the luck of the draw that he made it into the main draw as one of three lucky losers (there are now four).

Grand Slam premiere after five attempts

It is the highly anticipated premiere after failing the jump five times before. At the Australian Open, he failed in qualifying round three, also shortly before the finish.

However, luck is on his side this time. And it fits the history of his career that this is now the case in Paris, of all places. At Roland Garros, the Bernese celebrated his greatest success to date: In 2020 he triumphed in the juniors in both singles and doubles.

“It’s really cool that we’ve come full circle here. Of course I would have preferred to qualify the normal way, but that doesn’t really matter in the end. The main draw is the main draw!”, says Stricker, who also has a penchant for for the city of love.

During the qualifying phase, he stayed in a hotel right next to the Eiffel Tower. The number 116 in the world, who also speaks more than reasonable French, is also fascinated by the charm of the venerable buildings in alternation with modern buildings. Stricker says, “I enjoy it a lot. Paris is a hammer city.” And above all: it is the City that has shaped his career the most to date – and in which he now strives for the next achievement.

Difficult first round

On Tuesday he will meet American Tommy Paul (26) in the first round. The guy from Greenville, North Carolina is a real house number. He is 17th on the ATP ranking and reached the semifinals at the Australian Open in January.

However, Paul is not considered a sand specialist. Stricker says “I know him, he’s a great player, but there are definitely things on this surface that he doesn’t like.”

Left-handed Stricker, who has the steepest draw of all Swiss entrants, can play without pressure in a duel with the clear favourite. Nothing is left to chance in the team of the up-and-coming Swiss tennis talent. At the start of the main event, Stricker switched hotels again in the direction of “Les Jardins de Saint-Cloud”. True to the credo: “New week, new happiness.”

Source : Blick