27/06/22

Wimbledon, London, Great Britain, Grand Slam

For the first time in his career Dominic qualified for the Grand Slam qualifying tournament Wimbledon. What an honor and joy it was to be able to play there on the holy lawn of London. The qualifying matches were played in Roehampton. So many grass courts and a powerful atmosphere. After some travel difficulties (cancelled flight etc.) Dominic nevertheless quickly got used to the fast courts. As the draw would have it, he had to play his final opponent from Lugano, Vitally Sachko, already in the first round. And it quickly became clear that this was going to be a hot match. It started well and Dominic could quickly make a break. With solid service games Dominic could win the first set 6:3. But now Sachko became stronger and could read Dominic’s service better. A break in his favor was enough and he won the second set 4:6. So the third set had to decide. The match was very even. Break chances on both sides. Dominic used one of them to go 3:1 up, and then he was able to fend off another break chance to go 4:1 up. Sachko then complained about pelvic pain. And shortly after, Sachko gave up the match. The first round was over. In the second round, “unfortunately”, the No. 3 of the tournament, the American Stefan Kozlov ATP 107 faced. An incredible first set from both. Dominic aggressive and consistent. Kozlov on his part making no mistakes and playing every ball safely. 6:6 and the tie-break had to decide. 6:2 for Kozlov and set points for him. But Dominic did not give up and played his way back. 7:6 for Dominic. Set point. A great rally with pressure from Dominic, Kozlov came to the net and somehow managed to hit the ball and played the “referee” on the sideline. Where was the Hawk-Eye? There was not! Unbelievable, even the opposing coach said at the end that the ball was “out”. And so it went on and Dominic lost the tie-break with 9:11. But Dominic continued to play fantastically and he won the second set with 6:4. In the third set there was a break each and the score was 3:3. And also here Kozlov had several tight balls and with a net roller he won the second break. Unfortunately Dominic could not catch up and lost the match 1:2. Would have been, would have been etc.. Everything was sooooo close. But unfortunately the tennis gods did not want Dominic to reach the decisive third qualifying round. Especially since 5 lucky losers, but the next round, have made it into the main draw. Nevertheless: “Wimbi” that was a great tournament. Many thanks for the great support from my team (Roger, Martin, Pascale, Sabine and Stephan) on site. I will be back and am already looking forward to 2023.