After the defeats of Gerald Melzer and Andreas Haider-Maurer the Austrian single players are only spectators this week.
Basically the red-white-red individual efforts are resting on the ATP tour this week, at the latest since Tuesday: Andreas Haider-Maurer lost against Mischa Zverev in Munich, Gerald Melzer had to admit defeat to the qualifier Thiago Monteiro in Istanbul.
Dominic Thiem is on a break, and Dennis Novak and Jürgen Melzer, those two men who were mainly responsible for the Davis Cup team’s chance to start in the World Group next year, failed to qualify in Munich. Haider-Maurer used his Protected Ranking for the ATP tournament at the Isar, like in Barcelona and before in locations like Dubai, Rio de Janeiro, Buenos Aires and of course at the Australian Open. I lost 4:6, 3:6 against Zverev in Munich.
Gerald Melzer, on the other hand, was supposed to start in the qualification. Arriving on Friday, however, the trip to the Bavarian capital turned out to be just a flying visit: If a slot in a main field becomes free, you should accept it. Especially as number 115 in the world. The fact that things also went wrong in Istanbul continues a downward trend from Melzer’s point of view: The defeat against Monteiro was already the sixth of the year in round one. Only Quito went well for Gerald Melzer, where he reached the quarter-finals. And on the way there, I defeated the eternal Victor Estrella-Burgos. Especially in Quito not an easy exercise.
And of course there was also the performance in St. Pölten in the Davis Cup. Melzer contributed two points to the 5-0 win over Belarus, but he missed Moscow at his own request. Which was primarily due to the surface. Against the Australians in December, however, is played on ashes. And although Dominic Thiem will probably declare himself late again whether he will compete for Austria or not, team boss Stefan Koubek will look somewhat anxiously at the latest results of his budgetary number two.
Especially as the opponents recommended a man for an appearance in Austria who had not been noticed by ashes: John Millman reached the final in Budapest last week, lost there in the final Marco Cecchinato. It was also due to the fact that Millman had to finish his semi-final against Aljaz Bedene on Sunday morning. And another interesting news from the viewpoint of the Austrian Davis Cup fans: Lleyton Hewitt, the Australian captain, is back in business. Temporary. In Estoril, however, he signed up for the double tableau alongside Alex de Minaur, and in round one he beat the favoured Michael Venus and Raven Klaasen.