Australian Open: Marach after major title debut:”I had a monster fear.”

The Styrian Oliver Marach made a dream come true down under. Together with the Croatian Mate Pavic, the 37-year-old won his first Grand Slam title in doubles and sees himself rewarded after a number of setbacks.

From Ulrike Weinrich from Melbourne

Before the indescribable feeling of happiness Oliver Marach had a “monster fear”. Because his double partner Mate Pavic was completely in the tunnel – and so the duo’s first joint Grand Slam title was only registered in Melbourne Park with a delay of several seconds.”That was funny. I actually wanted to scream and be happy. But when Mate was standing there, I hesitated for a moment. It wasn’t until the referee said’ Game, Set, Match’ that everything was clear,”said Marach after the converted match ball, who sealed the 6:4 6:4 in the final against Colombian Juan Sebastian Cabal and Robert Farah (No. 11).

The 37-year-old told everything with shining eyes and seemed a bit like a little boy who was shopping in a candy store. With his father’s unlimited credit card. Marach enthused about the “absolute climax of his career” and about Pavic as a “perfect partner”. The only drawback was that the very big buzz down under and the enjoyment of a high-quality red wine failed. The favourite restaurant of the Austrian and Croats in the city centre had already been closed long ago when they left the facility at 2.30 a. m. on Saturday night,”We’ll do that when I visit Mate in Zagreb soon. Then two days are celebrated,”Marach announced with a zest for action and looked over at the 13-year-old younger Pavic in a mischievous manner.

At the award ceremony earlier in the Rod Laver Arena, the father of the family had shown himself to be a charmer and thanked the Colombian fans for the noisy atmosphere they had conjured up for the crowd,”Thank you, I’m your neighbour,”said Marach, who lives in Panama. Regardless of the fact that the cheers of the yellow-clad hardcore fans were, of course, Cabal/Farah.

But Marach could not shake anything in his bliss. The blonde boy felt rewarded for all the setbacks in his career on a memorable Australian summer evening,”I’ve had a lot of depths. And it wasn’t my fault,”he said in a thoughtful tone. In 2012, for example,”Oli” in Hamburg crashed against a metal anchorage on the edge of the court in Hamburg and had to pause for six months. He won the trial with a long delay,”but I lost a lot of time and money back then, it took me four years to complete the individual career path, and in 2006 he was number 82 in the world, he had already quit before – not least because of recurrent injuries.

With Pavic Marach seems to have found his luck now. The duo are undefeated this year (14-0 wins) and had already won the Doha and Auckland tournaments ahead of Melbourne. And this despite the fact that the preparation for the season was anything but ideal:”After my slipped disc in October, I was more at the doctor’s office than on the court. But I have now learned very well how to deal with pain,”said Marach. Lastly, it was hardly possible to work on the fitness because the station wagon was too successful:”We only had matches!”

After arriving from Australia in Austria on Monday, the Graz resident will get into his car, drive to Lake Chiemsee and look for his way to the doctor’s.”My body is acidified,”he explained. Despite the strains of the last few weeks, however, Marach is determined to win the Davis Cup for the Alpine republic against Belarus (2nd/3rd place in the Davis Cup duel. February) in St. Margarita This is very important to me. But I won’t get into tougher training there until Thursday,”Marach announced. This is coordinated with Captain Stefan Koubek. St. Pölten is looking forward to the Grand Slam Champion of Melbourne.