2 and missed the quarter-finals «kleinezeitung.at
Austria had to admit defeat to Germany 1: 2 at the Davis Cup final tournament in Innsbruck. The ÖTV team missed the quarter-finals.
9:51 p.m., November 28, 2021
As expected, Austria’s Davis Cup team did not survive the group stage at the final tournament in Innsbruck. The possible first victory over Germany in the sixth duel was possible on Sunday, but neither Dennis Novak nor the duo Oliver Marach / Philipp Oswald The chance you might die the victory of Yury Rodionov above Dominik Köpfer had given benefit. After the 0: 3 against Serbia, Austria also lost the second international match in Group F with 1: 2.
Marach / Oswald has to Kevin Krawietz / Tim Pütz bend smoothly with 3: 6.4: 6, with which the last appearance of the soon to retire Styrian Marach in the Davis Cup team with a lost end.
Rodionov had previously defeated Koepfer 6: 1.7: 5 after a strong performance and Novak was Jan-Lennard Struff inferior with 5: 7.4: 6. The ÖTV team would have had to defeat the Germans 3-0 to have a quarter-final chance. The Germans are group winners in Pool F and will play against Great Britain on Tuesday (4 p.m.) in Innsbruck to make it to the semi-finals in Madrid. Only the six group winners in Innsbruck, Turin and Madrid and the two group runners-up with the highest points made it into the quarter-finals.
Novak was behind
Novak had to fight the two top players in the absence of Dominic Thiem respectively. Alexander Zverev run after a residue from the start. He gave up his service right away, but managed the rebreak at 4: 5 to make it 5: 5. Another loss of service at 5: 6 decided set one in favor of the guests. As a result, Struff could not be denied victory, a break to 2: 1 paved the way for it. The second individual was over after 73 minutes.
“Of course I’m disappointed, I lost a Davis Cup match for Austria. I think there would have been more today. It wasn’t a good match for me, not a bad Novak either.” I started with a bad service game , then came in better and better and then played a good return game. At 5-5 in the game there were one or two bad decisions with the two stop balls, but against a strong server like Struffi it’s difficult. “
So with the somewhat unfortunate early loss of service to 1: 2 in the second set, it became difficult. “I wasn’t far from breaks. But when you run after a break against him, it’s hard.”
Strong performance by Rodionov
In the first single, Rodionov had put the hosts in the lead after a very strong performance. The 22-year-old Lower Austrian defeated the higher-rated Köpfer after 85 minutes with 6: 1.7: 5 in the Olympiaworld, which was empty due to Corona.
“It’s a great feeling, I’m close to tears,” said Rodionov on the pitch about one of his most important victories so far. “The only thing that is a shame is that we couldn’t play in front of the fans at home. That is a big minus. It would have been ten times better with the fans,” said the Lower Austrian, thinking of the fingers crossed for the ÖTV team.
Rodionov had found out on Friday evening after the defeat against Serbia that he would almost certainly be used on Sunday. “So I was able to watch Dominik against Krajinovic yesterday. I already knew how to play against him. I’ve already played him twice,” said Rodionov.
The tank war quickly empty
The course of the game even looked like a very smooth two-set win when Rodionov had set one in his pocket after 26 minutes and also played 4-2 in the second. “The tank was completely empty at 4-2 in the second, even without fans. You play the Davis Cup for Austria and there are a lot of thoughts going through your head that you can’t control. In the end, I was the happier,” said Rodionov ServusTV.
The Austrian, in the ranking as 139th clearly behind Köpfer (54th), fell behind 4: 2 with 4: 5 and even had to fend off two set balls. He made the break to 6: 5 and then the two-set victory.
For Rodionov it was the first victory for Austria in his fourth Davis Cup individual. Against Köpfer it was already his third victory in the third duel for Rodionov, including beating the German year in three sets in the first round of Stuttgart on grass.