Austria will play on Friday and Saturday at VAZ St. Pölten versus Belarus. Captain Stefan Koubek scatters Australian Open winner Oliver Marach Rosen, the Styrian will join the team on Wednesday. Tomorrow it will also be decided whether Dominic Thiem will be present. Günter Bresnik, however, criticizes the reforms in the Davis Cup.
Tuesday morning, Gerald Melzer and Dennis Novak completed their training at the Center Court in the VAZ St. in St. A normal clay court, not too fast, not too slow. Perfect. Exactly as we wanted him,”said Daviscup captain Stefan Koubek after the first trial gallop before the duel with Belarus on 2 January. and 3. February, when it comes to the promotion to the 2. The first round of the Europe/Africa Zone 1 will take place.
The rest of the five-man crew? Philipp Oswald travelled six hours by train from Vorarlberg; Sebastian Ofner was at the driving test; Oliver Marach visited the doctor of his choice in Germany. The Australian Open Champion had himself checked out, he will practice with the national team for the first time on Wednesday.
“Oli can almost do what he wants,”said Koubek,”the main thing is that he’s on the pitch on Saturday,” because then the second matchday will be opened at 1 pm with the doubles, two singles are on the schedule from 3 pm on the day before,” Oli has made an incredible start to the season, he hasn’t lost a match since the semi-finals in the Stadthalle. I think he doesn’t even know how to lose:” In addition, the Styrian not only harmonizes splendidly with the Croatian Mate Pavic, but also with Oswald – in 2017 the two of them won the ATP tournament in Gstaad.”Let’s put it this way: Even if Max Mirnyi was there with the Belarusians, I would prefer our doubles”.
In general: Gerald Melzer grew up on his favourite surface sand, Ofner reached last year’s semi-finals at the ATP sand court tournament in Kitzbühel, Novak “wins one future on sand after another”, said Koubek, who will decide after the next training sessions which of the youngsters will run in next to Gerald Melzer in the singles “In front of his own audience I see us in the favorite role.
In April 2017 the signs had been different. Belarus beat Austria 3-1 in Minsk on a brisk hardcourt 3-1, Melzer lost both games to Ilya Ivashka, with whom they will meet again this weekend:”We have a young team and must learn to win on all surfaces,”said captain Vladimir Voltchkov. Ivashka is the world’s number 190 player with the highest ranking in the world “. If you get the first set in a best-of-three match, anything can happen against a specialist.”
On Wednesday, Dominic Thiem decides whether the red-and-white red team in St. Peter’s is going to win. I hope and want him to be there,”said Koubek,” but he is exhausted. The decision is made by Günter Bresnik, with whom I have had many conversations. Anyway, we did everything we could to fulfill Domi’s wishes. The sixth on the world rankings didn’t have to make all team commitments, except to be there for the draw on Thursday.”I’d love to have him there on Friday to score a point.”
Bresnik, who found “a certain logical tiredness and emptiness” in his protégé, said to the standard:”There has never been a fixed commitment, but we wait to see what happens until Wednesday” The 56-year-old considers the reduction to two matchdays and two sets of wins below the world group to be “unsuccessful.” One of the oldest competitions in world sport is being dismantled in this way. “It’s become a bad horse-trading deal between the world federation ITF and the ATP tour.”
If captain Stefan Koubek’s team wins against Belarus, they would have to face the Russians on their way to the world group in April. 1) If Belarus wins in Round 2 against Russia, the Russians are the opponents in Moscow. 2) If Belarus loses against Russia, the Austrians will be confronted with the loser of the Bosnia-Slovakia game. Against Bosnia, the lot would decide on the right to a home, and against the Slovaks, one could play at home.