The Styrian Oliver Marach and his Croatian partner Mate Pavic are in the doubles finals of the Australian Open. The duo is still undefeated in 2018 – but physically already quite exhausted.
From Ulrike Weinrich from Melbourne
Oliver Marach let himself fall on his back and sank into a state of complete bliss. I would have liked to have been left lying down, but the hardcourt is so hot from the sun,”said the 37-year-old Austrian after entering the doubles final of the Australian Open. On Saturday evening, Marach and his Croatian partner Mate Pavic will meet the Colombian Juan Sebastian Cabal/Robert Farah (No. 11) in the Rod Laver Arena.
It is the second chance for the seventh seeded duo to win their first Grand Slam title. In Wimbledon in 2017 Marach/Pavic had lost the final against the exceptional Lukasz Kubot/Marcelo Melo (Poland/Brazil). But in 2018, after their tournament victories in Doha and Auckland, the two are still undefeated.
“I’d love it if we could do the triple. The Australian Open are my favourite slam, I’ve been to the semi-finals here before,”said Marach, saying:” We have the self-confidence from the first two weeks of the year, which makes a lot of difference in the important points “, which was particularly evident in the semi-finals on Thursday, when the Styrian and Croatian fought a nerve-racking battle against the German-Japanese duo Jan-Lennard Struff/Ben Mc. We tried to guess the corners – and each time he served to the other,”said Marach, joking:”I’m not allowed to go to the casino today.”
The number 17 in the double world rankings, however, made no secret of the fact that the power reserves have almost completely been used up due to the many matches in 2018:”I have no injuries now, but the body is simply over-acidified,”explained Marach:”Even if it’s only double, it just hoses. Traveling, for example.”
Nevertheless, the 1.85-metre-high right-hander wants to win the Davis Cup duel for the Alpine republic against Belarus (2nd/3rd place in the Davis Cup. February) in St. Margarita This is very important to me. But I won’t start training there until Wednesday,”Marach announced. First, he wants to be checked by the doctor or physio after the trip home.
And the final on Saturday in Melbourne?”We know we can beat anyone,” and the missing powers?”The one match, we’ll grab it,”said Marach – and grinned.