After Melzer's operation
Davis Cup: With the power of a Wimbledon winner
The international tennis match between Austria and Turkey in Bad Waltersdorf (Friday and Saturday) is casting its shadow ahead - the guests have been hitting the courts in the Styrian volcanic region since Sunday. Austria's aces have also been present since Monday. Not at full strength, but full of self-confidence.
Without Austria's number one Sebastian Ofner, without Dominic Thiem - and also without team captain Jürgen Melzer. A kidney colic forced the former world number eight to his knees and to undergo an operation. However, Red-White-Red is not moping ahead of the clash against the Turks.
The 44-year-old Alexander Peya is standing in for Melzer. The Viennese Peya can look back on 27 match appearances in 22 international matches, is active as a coach for several domestic professionals such as Neil Oberleitner and therefore has a similar wealth of experience as Melzer. After all, Peya was the world number three in doubles - at the age of 38, the actual ORF expert was also crowned Grand Slam champion in the mixed competition at Wimbledon in 2018 with Nicole Melichar from the USA. As always planned, Jürgen Melzer's younger brother will act as assistant coach: Gerald Melzer, the former number 68 and current number 544 in the tennis world and also a multiple Davis Cup team player.
Austria started the countdown to the Davis Cup with a relaxed game of soccer tennis and a training session on clay in a hall in Graz (due to the weather). Although the weather doesn't bode well for the matches (Friday/Saturday), the Sportaktivpark is well prepared and fans need not worry. "Cancellation is out of the question," says managing director Sascha Freitag, "in theory, we could postpone, but we're working with special blowers and tarpaulins, everything is on track."
Austria goes into this match as favorites with Jurij Rodionov (ATP 202), Filip Misolic (ATP 224), Lukas Neumayer (ATP 320) and the experienced doubles specialists Lucas Miedler (ATP doubles 59) and Alexander Erler (ATP doubles 49). Young star Joel Schwärzler (ATP 375) also has a chance of making the team and will also be training with the team, as will Peya's protégé Oberleitner (ATP 475).
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