Dennis Novak has extended the Austrian lead in the Davis Cup duel against Australia to 2:0. Novak defeated Alex de Minaur after falling behind in four sets.
By Jens Huiber from Graz
Perhaps it was Dominic Thiem’s late arrival at the Davis Cup Court in Graz that slowed Dennis Novak down a bit at the beginning of his encounter with Alex de Minaur. The first set actually went to the young Australian. In the end, however, Novak took up his big Davis Cup form from Moscow and took a 3:6, 6:2, 6:3 and 6:2 2-0 lead for Austria after a playing time of 2:28 hours.
In the first match of the day Dominic Thiem had no problem with Jordan Thompson, he only played four games over the three sets.
The first round went according to plan – after all, de Minaur is among the top 50 players in the world, Dennis Novak currently trades at position 133, but with the first break in set two the pendulum swung in the direction of Team Austria, with the audience playing its part.
Novak varied well, but offered a pace that de Minaur, who had Alexander Zverev on the verge of defeat in a duel with Germany at the beginning of the year, had little to counter. Even the exquisitely played Novak stop balls were of no use to the very agile Australian.
The first match point at 1-5 in the fourth set was fended off by de Minaur with his own serve, but after that Dennis Novak served without any problems. In front of a closed Austrian bank, where Oliver Marach and Jürgen Melzer did not miss a single point. The two veterans can already make clear the return of the Austrians to the world group on Saturday in doubles. John Peers and Playing Captain Lleyton Hewitt are expected.
After the match in the ORF interview, Novak also emphasized the good mood in the team. It is unbelievable what support he would receive from the bank. Davis Cup is simply lying there for him, the whole week with his colleagues is helping him enormously. So is the audience.