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Swiss qualifier Dominic Stricker was seen singing along to Whitney Houston's "I Wanna Dance With Somebody" during his second round match against Stefanos Tsitsipas at the 2023 US Open. The 21-year-old pulled off a massive upset by defeating the seventh seed in a five-set thriller.
Stricker showed no signs of nerves as he sang along to the song while it was playing on the stadium speakers. The Swiss seemed to know all the lyrics and even bopped his head to the beat.
The 21-year-old then closed out the match with a 7-5, 6-7(2), 6-7(5), 7-6(6), 6-3 victory over Tsitsipas, who was a finalist at this year’s Australian Open.
The clip of Stricker’s singing was posted on Twitter (now X) on Thursday, August 31.
"Dominic Stricker singing along to ‘I Wanna Dance with Somebody’ by Whitney Houston in his last changeover before taking out Tsitsipas," the caption read.
Stricker said after the match that he was enjoying himself on the court and that the crowd helped him stay focused.
"I came out today pretty well. I felt good from the first set on. It was a tough battle but I am just super happy right now," Stricker said. "I am going to enjoy the rest of the day and then I will recover for the next round."
"I was down 3-5 and then I came back in the fourth set. I don't know how, but I did it somehow and then I kept playing very high-level tennis. I am a bit speechless but it is a great day," he added.
Stricker will face Benjamin Bonzi of France in the third round of the US Open on Friday.
Stefanos Tsitsipas recorded his most disappointing Grand Slam performance in the US Open this year
World No.7 Stefanos Tsitsipas recorded the most disappointing performance of the 2023 season at the US Open this year, losing to 128th-ranked player Dominic Stricker on Wednesday.
This was not the first time that Tsitsipas had a disappointing performance at the US Open. In fact, he has never gone past the third round in New York.
Stefanos Tsitsipas made his US Open debut in 2018, losing to Daniil Medvedev in the second round in four sets. In 2019, the Greek suffered a shock defeat to Andrey Rublev in the first round in a four-set thriller.
In 2020, he lost to Borna Coric in the third round in five sets. In 2021, he was upset by Carlos Alcaraz in the third round in five sets. And in 2022, he was ousted by Daniel Elahi Galan in the first round in four sets.
Stefanos Tsitsipas said after his latest loss that he was disappointed with his performance and that he needed to find a way to overcome his mental challenges at the US Open.
"By no means I'm supposed to put any blame on any people or any members of my team," Tsitsipas said."Everything on the court is under my control and under my talents, and the way I can play this sport is shown out on the court."
"It hasn't happened to me before. Usually I'm much tougher mentally, and I have shown it by coming back...today was not the case. I was not able to bounce back after it," he added.
