ATP: Marach, Peya, Struff, Oswald – double plays better

Barcelona and Budapest – these are the two stops where the ATP tour stops this week. Special attention should also be paid to doubles.

Let’s assume Oliver Marach and Mate Pavic would put their legs up from now on, take a well-deserved holiday for weeks, maybe even months – then the Styrian-Croatian couple would probably still go to the ATP finals in London. Marach/Pavic are 3150 points ahead of Michael Venus and Raven Klaasen, who are currently in ninth place. London can come.

Of course Marach and Pavic, triple tournament winners in 2018 (Doha, Auckland, Australian Open) and last week finalists in Monte Carlo (defeat against Bob and Mike Bryan, who are second in the race), but want to use the flow to collect more points, money and titles. This week in Barcelona, where a new edition of the Monte Carlo final is within reach.

So hook on Oliver Marach and the ATP Finals. In Budapest, however, there are three men who, together with their partners, are also asserting claims on London. For one thing, there is the experienced Alexander Peya. He has also found a playmate from Croatia, with Nikola Mektic Peya leads the seed list in the Hungarian capital. In the Doubles Race Peya/Mektic are currently the fourth power, two places ahead of Jan-Lennard Struff and Ben McLachlan.

The German Davis Cup player and his Japanese colleague are in second place in Budapest, but Struff will change partners temporarily next week: For the ATP tournament in Munich, the Warsteiner named Tim Pütz. They are undefeated in the Davis Cup and the German Bundesliga, it remains to be seen whether this series can be continued at the Aumeister.

Not to forget Philipp Oswald. The Vorarlberger not only scored an eminently important point for Austria in the Davis Cup with Jürgen Melzer in Moscow, at Max Mirnyi’s side Oswald also won the titles in Houston and New York in 2018. In the annual ranking this results in twelfth place at the moment. And the trend is rising.

Oswald/Mirnyi are also trying their luck this week in Budapest, they could meet the top seeded Peya/Mektic in the semi-finals.

Here the double tableau in Barcelona

Here the double tableau in Budapest