- The Swiss Davis Cup team defeated Ecuador 3-2 in Salinas and advanced to qualifying for the final tournament in 2023.
- On Day 1, Marc-Andrea Hüsler was able to celebrate a win while Henri Laaksonen lost.
- On the decisive second day, Marc-Andrea Hüsler wins the doubles with Dominic Stricker (7:5, 4:6, 6:3), but then loses his singles (7:6 (7:3), 2:6, 2:6).
- Ultimately, Alexander Ritschard got the coals out of the fire and won game 5 with ease (6:1, 6:2).
It was 2:2 before the decisive 5th duel of the pairing of Ecuador against Switzerland in Salinas. Swiss coach Severin Lüthi had to decide whether to use Henri Laaksonen (ATP 123), who had lost the second game, or Alexander Ritschard (ATP 163). He opted for the latter – and should do extremely well with it.
The Swiss-US dual citizen played well in his first Davis Cup match against Roberto Quiroz (ATP 260). The first 4 games belonged to Ritschard, he finally won the set 6:1 with 2 breaks. In the 2nd set he showed more effort, but was able to win it 6:2 as well.
Hüsler runs out of breath
The second day had already started victoriously. With a score of 1:1, Marc-Andrea Hüsler and Dominic Stricker won against the Ecuadorian duo Gonzalo Escobar/Diego Hidalgo. The first break of the game came at the crucial moment to make it 6:5 from a Swiss perspective. In the second round, the Ecuadorians fought back by taking the serve from the Swiss to make it 6:4. Already with a break lead to 6:3, Hüsler/Stricker managed to break through to the match.
After a half-hour break, Hüsler (ATP 87) then had the chance to decide the duel individually for Switzerland. At the beginning it looked like a realistic plan, in the tie-break of the first set he showed himself to be sovereign and defeated Emilio Gomez there (ATP 112) 7: 3. The longer the game lasted, the more you noticed that Hüsler’s strength was dwindling. The two following rounds each went to Gomez with a score of 6:2.
But since Ritschard still played well for Switzerland, Switzerland is in the qualifiers for the final round in 2023. The qualifiers will take place next spring. The best 16 teams can take part in the final round.
