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Dominic Stricker really thought he would survive a round or two at the Challenger tournament in Lugano. The young tennis player (18) would not have expected to be in the second highest level with five wins and thus his first title on Sunday.
Stricker rates his success in Ticino even higher than his junior title at last year’s French Open. It brings you a cash prize of $ 6,190. The effects on the world ranking are much greater than on the cash register: Stricker has climbed 452 places and is now 422 in the world.
The fact that he is even ahead of Roger Federer and Stan Wawrinka in the even less informative annual ranking (Race to Turin) is something Stricker cannot help but smile at. “We have set the top 500 as our annual goal in the world rankings. Now we’ll adjust that a bit, ”says Stricker, who continues to work with coach Sven Swinnen.
Faster than Federer
However, it is inevitable that he cannot avoid comparisons to Roger and Stan. Behind the two Grand Slam champions, Stricker is the third youngest Swiss tournament winner on the Challenger Tour. With the first win in just the second tournament, he is even faster than Federer, who won his eighth Challenger for the first time in October 1999 in Brest, France.
So is Stricker the better tennis teenager than Federer back then? After all, it is not like that. Because the Basel bidder was already playing regularly on the ATP tour in addition to the Challenger events. Only with the victory of the tournament it worked only in the eighth and then in the last attempt. After that, the Challenger issue was definitely over for him.
At the moment, Stricker is going one step lower this week in the ITF tournament at his second home, the tennis association headquarters in Biel. The jump in the world rankings should help him be considered for the Challenger qualification in the future. In Lugano, the eventual winner of the tournament still benefited from a wild card. (cmü)
Roger Federer, Brest 1999 (18 years, 2 months)
Stan Wawrinka, San Benedetto 2003 (18 years, 4 months)
Dominic Stricker, Lugano 2021 (18 years, 7 months)
Marc Rosset, Nyon 1989 (18 years, 10 months)
Posted: 03/29/2021, 55 minutes ago
Last Updated: March 29, 2021, 53 minutes ago
