It was Dominic’s second participation in the Swiss Davis Cup team in this traditional team competition.
Unfortunately, Dominic was unable to match his recent performance in the opening singles match. Dominic trained very well all week with the whole team in Biel and also felt fit. In the match, however, a certain nervousness was noticeable and his opponent also played very well. Unfortunately, he lost his singles match. After the first day, however, the score was 1-1. In the doubles, Dominic played together with Marc Andrea Hüsler. Both had already played together a few times and are now a well-rehearsed team. Despite fierce resistance, they were able to prevail. With an ace in the tie-break of the second set, Dominic ended the match in favour of Switzerland. After that, Henry Laaksonen closed the bag with another victory. In the end, Switzerland won the match against Lebanon 3:1. Mäc and Domi said after the match: “In doubles, we can also beat the best in the world”. That was probably a bit of an exaggeration, but especially on fast surfaces like in Biel, the two are very difficult to break. They have not lost a service game in two Davis Cup matches.
However, their opponents were also modest, Estonia last September and now Lebanon. Nevertheless, there are now reasons for optimism. “We have more depth than we did a few years ago,” says long-time captain Severin Lüthi. But the real test will come in September, when Lüthi’s team is back in the World Group, fighting to qualify for the final tournament of the best 16 teams next spring. The opponents in the next encounters will be of a higher quality than the last ones. Possible hurdles are the Czech Republic, Japan, Brazil, Austria or Slovakia. “Maybe the strong opponents are still too early,” Lüthi speculates. “But we can certainly beat a few of the possible opponents.” The draw will be made at the end of March. By autumn it should be possible to play with spectators again.
The only downer of the victory was that only about 150 invited guests were allowed into the hall. But the international federation had to draw up rules for 210 countries, and the pandemic situation is not the same everywhere.
Pictures provided by Meierhans Photography