Riedi continues to rocket up the rankings

Switzerland’s Leandro Riedi started 2022 ranked at no. 695. Following some good results on the Challenger tour he has taken that to no. 157 starting the week in Canberra.

Riedi has now reached the final at the P2 Advisory Canberra International. It is an ATP100 Challenger event. That makes it three straight Challenger finals for the 20-year-old Swiss player.

Riedi also won titles in Helsinki and Andria in November.

Against Germany’s Jan-Lennard Struff he battled all the way to overcome the former world no. 29 and a past finalist in Canberra.

It could have gone either way in the first set with a tiebreaker deciding who got the early advantage.

Struff kept in the match winning the second set after a controversial line call, or lack of a line call.

With Riedi serving to take the second set to a tiebreaker a ball looked to be out but no call came and the umpire didn’t overrule. There was no hawkeye but crowdeye was calling that it was out.

Struff took that game to break for 7-5.

Riedi didn’t let that upset him, he broke in the opening game of the third set and then broke again to take the match 7-6(6), 5-7, 6-2.

The Swiss player then backed up later in the afternoon in the men’s semifinals. He lost with partner Gijs Brouwer against Ben McLachlan and Andre Goransson 7-6(4), 6-4.

Riedi’s fitness will be tested in the singles final against superfit Hungarian Marton Fucsovics.

Fucsovics said after the match that he was in the final in the past, this time he is wanting the title.

The 30-year-old lost to Andreas Seppi in the 2018 final before going on to reach a career-high ranking of no. 31 in 2019.

The Hungarian was too powerful for Japan’s Yosuke Watanaki in their semifinal clash. The final score being 6-2, 7-5.

Fucsovics had the edge on receiver points won with 34 from 69 compared to 22 from 61 for Watanaki.

Riedi and Fucsovics are meeting for the first time.

The final is scheduled for 2:00 pm at the Canberra Tennis Centre.