ATP Cup: Muster, Becker, Albot - The game of the captains
Tennis Australia, as the organizer, went out of its way to ensure a lot of prominence in the captain position. With success. So far, many team bosses have shone.
by Jens Huiber
last edit: Jan 08, 2020, 03:47 pm
There were four Austrian winners in Sydney on Monday, three of whom were allowed to comment on the team captain in an on-court interview. Only Jürgen Melzer got around the question of Thomas Muster - but what should Melzer add after Oliver Marach had ventured out as a fan of the first hour? Patterns had taken a back seat in the doubles, physically too, by sitting in the second row. And the coaching left Julian Knowle.
Thomas Muster, 1995 French Open winner and very close to the Australian continent, apparently takes his captaincy very seriously. And not only has a lot to tell on the pitch, but also in the locker room, as Dennis Novak knew after the disastrous first sentence against Guido Pella. "Choice words", you would say in Down Under. Who did not help in the defeat against Poland on Wednesday.
Becker with fashionable highlights
Gilles Simon, on the other hand, had taken a voluntary break from broadcasting in a similar situation: Benoit Paire had just messed up the victory against Dusan Lajovic that was already believed to be safe (and then only got it in the third set), when Simon felt compelled to maintain the prescribed paire safety distance observed. Especially since he had disabled two rackets. So Gael Monfils jumped into the breach, cheering up his teammate. The French take care of everything internally anyway, in the match between Paire and Kevin Anderson on the last day of the group stage, Monfils had taken over the position of captain on site. Because Simon still had to recover from his appearance against Lloyd Harris. The fact that the art of both Simon and Monfils failed in the end was more due to Benoit Paire and his failure to reserve the match in both the second and third sets.
Alexander Zverev would have done a lot of encouragement, regardless of the match. It remains to be seen whether Boris Becker really found access to his number one player. Perhaps the Red Baron himself was in the dark, as he attested to his player after losing to Canada. However, Zverev's attention should have been certain thanks to interesting fashion variations: On day one with long white trousers that would have been an honor for every chief physician in a clinic in Brisbane. In the match against the Greeks in a sporty short trousers, at the end against Canada the more strict version: long and black. It is interesting, however, whether Becker is redefining his role as captain as a supervisor at Zverev's side, where Thomas Muster and Dominic Thiem want to try.
Vladimir Albot convinced
But the team bosses shouldn't fail because of the accessories either. And then Vladimir Albot, the team leader of the Republic of Moldova selection, made a clear application for the title role in a possible film adaptation of Elton John's late work.
In conclusion, it can be said that the Bulgarian experiment of playing as a playing captain with Grigor Dimitrov was almost fruitful. But in the end it failed because of the boss personally. Against Belgium, Dimitar Kuzmanov had surprisingly beaten Steve Darcis, Dimitrov only had to harvest the seeds of this seed against David Goffin, one of his favorite opponents. And promptly lost his single. And also the double with Alexandar Lazarov.