Keystone
Henry Bernet from Basel is the first Swiss player to reach the junior final at the Australian Open. One day before his 18th birthday, he wins 7:6 (8:6), 6:2 against Finland’s Oskari Paldanius.
Before Bernet, Rebeka Masarova was the only Swiss player to reach the final of a junior tournament at the Australian Open. The current 142nd-ranked player in the world, who now plays for Spain, lost to Ukraine’s Marta Kostjuk in 2017. Bernet will face the American Benjamin Willwerth on Saturday, his birthday. The latter is number 22 in the junior world rankings and therefore 16 places lower than Bernet.
On the way to his first final in his fourth Grand Slam appearance, Bernet impressed not least with his nerves of steel. He has won all six tiebreaks in his five matches so far, including the one against Paldanius in the semi-final after fending off two set points.
-Bernet is the seventh Swiss player to contest a Grand Slam final in the men’s junior category. Heinz Günthardt (French Open and Wimbledon winner in 1976), Roger Federer (Wimbledon winner and US Open finalist in 1998), Roman Valent (Wimbledon winner in 2001), Stan Wawrinka (French Open winner in 2003), Dominic Stricker and Leandro Riedi were his predecessors. Stricker and Riedi faced each other in the 2020 Roland Garros final, with Stricker coming out on top.
Swiss
