BIEL/STARNBERG, March 25, 2022
Swiss teenager Dominic Stricker delighted his home crowd on Friday by reaching the semi-finals of the Flowbank Challenger Biel/Bienne. The No. 3 seed of the €45,730 indoor hard-court tournament edged past eighth-seeded Dutch Tim van Rijthoven 6-4, 7-5.
Stricker, champion of the 2020 French Open boys’ singles as well as doubles title, withstood 14 aces and broke his opponent’s serve two times to seal victory in one hour and eight minutes.
“I’m very happy to have reached the semi-finals here in Biel. That wasn’t necessarily to be expected, as there are a lot of good players at Challenger level and anyone can beat anyone at any time,” the 19-year-old Münsingen native said.
Stricker, who also reached the stage of the final four in Biel last year, will next take on Kacper Zuk. The World No. 212 from Poland defeated Antoine Escoffier from France 7-6(2), 6-2 in one hour and 27 minutes.
Rodionov beats Riedi
In the top half of the draw, Jurij Rodionov ended the run of 20-year-old Swiss wild card entry Leandro Riedi. The World No. 201 from Austria sent down six aces and won 73 per cent of his first-service points to prevail after one hour and 19 minutes.
Up next for Rodionov will be Filip Horansky. The 29-year-old Slovakian beat Czech qualifier Marek Gengel 6-4, 6-3. The encounter lasted 63 minutes.
In Saturday’s doubles final, French top seeds Pierre-Hugues Herbert and Albano Olivetti will take on the all-Indian combination of Purav Raja and Ramkumar Ramanathan.
Singles action will start at 12 noon local time.
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