Five Austrian tournament victories have already been achieved this year. Except for France, no other tennis nation can compete.
Compared to the traditional major tennis powers of the USA, Spain and Australia, Austrian pros are rarely represented in the upper-ranking regions. In the singles with Dominic Thiem there is only one red, white and red player in the top 100 at the moment, in the doubles there are four.
All the more remarkable are the performances of the ÖTV pros in the first two months of the young season: no other nation can boast more than five tournament victories. Oliver Marach is allowed to write the bear portion on his own banners. The native of Graz has won three trophies with his Croatian double partner Mate Pavic. After the triumphs in Doha and Auckland, the duo took to the Australian Open for a big blow.
The winning streak in Rotterdam would have been rewarded with the title by a hair’s breadth, but in the Dutch port city Marach/Pavic had to admit defeat in the match tiebreak in the final.
Philipp Oswald could not be defeated in New York City at the side of Max Mirnyi, while Dominic Thiem celebrated the end of his twelve-month title drought in Buenos Aires.
The fact that the “Grande Nation” has also accumulated five tournament victories should come as no surprise to the phalanx of French top pros – France currently has eleven top 100 players in singles and eight in doubles. The dominance of the Europeans is rounded off by the Netherlands (four tournament victories) and Croatia (three).