Next weekend, the Austrian Davis Cup team is looking for revenge. Captain Stefan Koubek’s team wants to forget last year’s defeat and take the first step towards advancing to the top of the world group against Belarus. Dominic Thiem and Australian Open Champion Oliver Marach will also participate.
The Sankt Pölten event centre is the venue for the first appearance of Austria’s Davis Cup players in 2018. Belarus is an absolute underdog, but the hosts should be warned.
In the only meeting in Minsk so far, the Austrians also went into the duel last April as favourites. In the end, however, there was a bitter 1:3 bankruptcy, all three played out singles were lost.
“Nevertheless, I still see us in the role of favourites,”Koubek said on Tuesday. While playing on a fast hard court last year, this time the ÖTV chose a clay court, but we have to take it seriously, from the first to the last point,”added Koubek.
Gerald Melzer, who had lost his two singles against the Belarussians in his first-round defeat at the Australian Open, was already training on clay after his first-round defeat at the Australian Open.
In his first match on Friday, Melzer will face Ilya Ivashka, against whom he lost last April in four sets:”It’s something very special to open a Davis Cup at home,”said the 27-year-old,”There will be a lot of friends, the family, the fan club. I hope the hall is full and it’s going to be a huge tennis festival.”
The crowd of spectators will be boosted primarily by Thiem’s short-term commitment. I am now expecting a full house and a great atmosphere,”said Koubek, and he knows:” We are now perceived differently by the Belarusians because they expect us to have two points down.
Thiem would like to show himself to the fans of Lower Austria, despite some doubts of his coach Günter Bresnik:”I can understand Günter, but I really wanted to play,”Thiem wrote on Facebook:”I hope that Mr. Zhyrmont will not play like the Sandgren against me in Australia. Otherwise we have a problem,”Thiem said on Thursday about his opening opponent.
Thiem, too, is now expecting “a real Davis Cup atmosphere”. For the 2,647 seats in the VAZ St. Pölten only a few tickets are available on Friday and Saturday.
In doubles, the Austrian team will have the newly crowned Australian Open Champion Oliver Marach at their disposal. The 37-year-old only joined the team on Wednesday, but Koubek has few doubts about the short familiarisation period,”I don’t think he knows how to lose,”said Koubek.
Marach will tackle the doubles with Philipp Oswald. Oswald also showed himself in a strong form recently and reached Auckland with the Belarusian Max Mirnyi, who was in St. Peter’s at the end of the 19th century. Pölten will be missing, the final. There, however, was against Marach and his regular partner Mate Pavic.
Since this year the Davis Cup teams are allowed to nominate a fifth player. After Thiems’ acceptance, a test match decided for the last remaining place in the team. Dennis Novak won against Sebastian Ofner in two sets.
Another change in this year’s season is the game mode. At all levels except the World Group, all matches are played on two winning sets, making the “best-of-five”format history. The ITF is testing variants designed to make the Davis Cup more attractive for top players.
In the first Davis Cup week of the new season, Alexander Zverev (in Brisbane against Australia), Thiem and David Goffin (in Liège against Hungary) are the top eight of the world ranking.
For Belarus captain Vladimir Voltchkov, the changes are an opportunity for surprises:”If you win the first set in a best-of-three-match, anything can happen against a specialist,”the former World Ranking 25 knows.
In addition to Mirnyi, the top 200 players Uladzimir Ignatik and Egor Gerasimov are missing from the squad. As number 190 in the world, Ivashka is the guest player with the highest rank,”he has improved greatly. The new mode can accommodate him,”said Voltchkov.
The winner of the match between Austria and Belarus will meet Russia in April, who will enjoy a walk-through in the first round. Should the Austrians also overcome this hurdle, they would play against the winner of the Bosnia and Herzegovina’s game against Slovakia in the autumn for promotion to the world group.