Oliver Marach and his Croatian partner Mate Pavic lost the group match against Jack Sock and Mike Bryan. Nevertheless, the Styrian still has a good chance of making it to the semi-finals on Saturday.
By Jens Huiber from London
If the draw at a tennis tournament is a diabolical one, it is rare in the early stages, but it does lead to an early final. One of the good news at the Nitto ATP Finals in London, on the other hand, is that The fact that the world’s top riders will meet the ruling US Open and Wimbledon champions on Wednesday does not rule out a reunion on Sunday.
Especially since Oliver Marach and Mate Pavic as well as the US-American hopefuls Jack Sock and Mike Bryan had each successfully made their first appearances. By the way, the latter is contesting his 17th season finale in London, the first without his brother Bob, who is still recovering from a hip operation.
Should there be a reunion between these pairings in the final, then Brayn and Sock went into the match with a better feeling. The two won the matinee with 6:4 and 7:6 ( )
The match schedule had therefore set the earlier date for doubles and singles in the second group match. As already in the past days the audience arrived with delay, a first volume measurement resulted in a value of 86 decibels. The fully occupied hall at the match between Roger Federer and Dominic Thiem had reached 106 decibels the evening before.
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The first set went 4:4 without any special incidents, then Bryan and Sock used some lack of concentration of their opponents for the first break. Sock served up after 33 minutes to 6:4.
In the second set the Americans struck earlier, but when it came to closing the bag Mike Bryan showed some nerves. Marach/Pavic managed the rebreak to 5:5 – and, with some effort at service of the Styrian, the entry into the tiebreak. There a Vorhandvolley, which Pavic put to 4:5 laterally into the out, decided the match – Mike Bryan did not let himself be lumpen with the second attempt.
Oliver Marach and Mate Pavic still have a good chance of reaching the semi-finals on Saturday. In the last group game on Freitga they will meet Lukasz Kubot and Marcelo Melo.
But the tournament is over for Alexander Peya. The Viennese had to withdraw due to his elbow problems, Henri Kontinen and John Peers are filling in for the third group match. Peya had lost the first two games in two sets with Nikola Mektic.
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