Three Swiss, including two miracles, are just one victory away from a place in the Australian Open final draw: Dominic Stricker (ATP 119), Leandro Riedi (ATP 135) and Simona Waltert (WTA 129 ).
Thursday, the Bernese, the Zurich and the Grisonne will open, if successful, the doors of a Grand Slam for the first time in their career. Stricker will be opposed to Enzo Couacaud (ATP 190), a Mauritian who defends the French colors, Riedi to the Czech Dalibor Svrcina (ATP 219) and Waltert to the Canadian Katherine Sebov (WTA 191).
Riedi’s Miracle
If Stricker and Waltert, who had dismissed a match point in the 1st round, won without shaking ahead of Mitchell Krueger (USA / ATP 233) and Astra Sharma (AUS / WTA 224) respectively, Leandro Riedi came back from nowhere. Now victorious in 18 of his last 19 meetings, the Zurich player saved 3 match points against Giulio Zeppieri (ITA / ATP 168), 3-6 7-6 (7/4) 7-6 (13/11).
Led 3-0 at the start of the 3rd set, Riedi was led 9/7 in the super tie-break, then 11/10 before concluding on his 2nd match point.
Henri Laaksonen (ATP 187) was, on the other hand, eliminated 7-6 (9/7) 6-2 by the Russian Pavel Kotov (ATP 118).
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