Dennis Novak and Julia Grabher did not make it into the main field of the French Open 2018: The last two Austrian representatives in the qualification were eliminated after two-set defeats.
By Jens Huiber from Paris
Somehow Dennis Novak saw disaster coming in the third round of qualifying for the French Open: the Austrian Davis Cup player led 8:7 in the tiebreak of the first set against Adam Pavlasek, on serve of the Czech. Novak asked quietly, but warmly, that a service of his opponent should not touch the line for once.
Which, of course, happened en suite twice. Novak lost the short decision with 8:10. And this despite support from the neighboring country: Maximilian Marterer gave himself at least the first set, then left for training.
In Australia, Novak had fought their way through the qualification and Grigor Dimitrov was presented as the first-round opponent as a reward. This will be denied him in Roalnd Garros in 2018, with Novak losing 6-7 (8) and 4-6 at the end, making it all the more regrettable that Novak defeated Taro Daniel, the number one in the qualifying grid, on Tuesday.
In the second set, the Austrian, who had scored the important first point against Andrey Rublev at the Davis Cup in Moscow, had problems with his own service, but kept it until 4-4, then a forehand of Novak sailed out, Pavalsek took the decisive break.
Court 8 had not brought Julia Grabher any luck before: The Austrian started well into the second set against Arantxa Rus, leading 3-1, but then all other matches went to the Dutch player, who entered the third qualifying round with 6-3 and 6-3.
Here is the women’s qualification tableau
Here is the men’s qualification tableau