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Keystone
Dominic Stricker causes a sensation during his debut at ATP level in Geneva during the week and eliminates two top 50 players on the way to the quarter-finals with Marin Cilic and Marton Fucsovics. Swiss tennis fans would have liked to see him at the French Open, but nothing comes of it.
For years, Swiss tennis fans mainly kept their fingers crossed for Roger Federer and Stan Wawrinka. The latter will miss the French Open this year and Federer has many question marks about his form – and his big goals are Wimbledon and the Olympic Games anyway. It would have been all the nicer if Sticker had been given the chance to present itself to the “big ones” at a Grand Slam tournament for the first time.
But the French Open organizers remain tough and do not reward knitters with a wildcard. The Swiss glasses are incomprehensible, as Stricker has just demonstrated his huge potential and also won last year’s French Open in the juniors. That Dominic is not rewarded also annoys his father, like «Blick» writes: “It is incomprehensible to me that a junior double Grand Slam winner does not automatically qualify for a wildcard. That is a very, very shame. “
Domestic talents are given preferential treatment
The 18-year-old made a big jump in the world rankings from 419 to 334 on Monday. But that also means that there are still 334 better-ranked tennis players. And tournament boss Guy Forget distributes 15 of the 16 wildcards for the main tableau to the French – one goes to Australia. It is up to the organizers to whom they distribute their wildcards and it is not uncommon for local talent to be given preferential treatment. Therefore any protest would be pointless.
Dominic Stricker doesn’t seem to bother: “It’s a shame. Of course it would have been cool to compete in Paris. I just have to keep working hard and move up the ranking so that I can go to a Grand Slam in the future without a wildcard. ” With this he proves once again that it’s right between the ears. Instead of the French Open, Sticker will now serve at the Kiseljak Open, an ITF tournament in Bosnia-Herzegovina endowed with 25,000 US dollars.
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