Austria at the Davis Cup Finals! Dennis Novak beats Pablo Cuevas in three sets
Austria is allowed to pack the suitcases for the Davis Cup finals in Madrid: Dennis Novak defeated Pablo Cuevas in the duel with 2: 6, 6: 3 and 6: 4 ( read in our live ticker ) and thus fixed the victory in the international match Uruguay .
by Michael Rothschädl
last edit: Mar 08, 2020, 02:09 pm
In the first individual on Saturday, Dennis Novak had the chance to decide the Davis Cup duel between Austria and Uruguay in favor of the home side. After Oliver Marach and Jürgen Melzer were able to turn the all-important double against Ariel Behar and Pablo Cuevas, it was about a 2-1 win for Austria. Already on Friday Novak showed an acceptable performance and didn't give the smaller of the two Cuevas brothers, Martin Cuevas, a chance. His opponent, Pablo Cuevas, had to fight a lot more for this individual: The veteran had to fight Jurij Rodionov over the full distance, but ultimately narrowly but won 7: 6 (5) in the deciding set.
Once there was this duel, and the first meeting of Novak and Cuevas took place on Austrian soil. At the ATP 250 event in Kitzbühel, when Cuevas won two sets in the round of 16. This match must have been a painful memory for Dennis Novak, after having won the first set he had to watch Pablo Cuevas turn this game. Now, however, there are completely different requirements, the game takes place on hard court, which basically plays the Austrian into the cards. In addition, Dennis Novak can look back on a very successful year 2020, the Lower Austrian was able to play in the top 100 in the world rankings for the first time.
Cuevas with a good start
Nevertheless, Pablo Cuevas is an easy favorite in this game, as he was in good shape in both his singles and doubles. The man from Uruguay could also take this momentum into the game against Dennis Novak. After sovereign service games by both players, it was the 34-year-old who was supposed to break this game for the first time. The Austrian immediately had the chance to make a rebreak, but Cuevas was able to thwart it with an ace. A few moments later it became even more bitter for the 26-year-old from Lower Austria: Cuevas took the serve off Novak again and went ahead with a double break. After just 25 minutes, the South American was able to serve set one.
The Austrian made too many mistakes in the first set, due to the high speed that Novak wanted to get off the baseline. 17 mistakes without need in round one were simply too many. Novak didn't change his tactics in the second set, but he did change the success he had with them. The Austrian acted untouchable on his own serve and made the deciding break in the second game. Round two went to the 26-year-old with 6: 3.
Novak with a longer breath
As with his two previous appearances in Premstätten, Pablo Cuevas had to make a decisive third sentence. Here, too, the landlord got off to a better start, Cuevas removed his service for 1-0 - the Davis Cup arena in Premstätten was upside down. When the score was 4-2, Novak had the decision on the racket and found three breakballs at Cueva's serve. The man from Uruguay, however, was able to fend off all of them and stayed in this game. But Novak remained untouchable on his own serve and served with 6: 4 after almost two hours.
"It's hard. It's an incredible feeling. I can't say much, I'm sorry. Thanks to everyone in the hall, it was incredible," said a clearly moved Dennis Novak right after his win. The Lower Austrian withstood the great pressure and delivered a particularly strong performance in sets two and three. This means that Austria can plan for the Davis Cup finals from November 23 to 29 in Madrid. The draw will take place in London next Thursday. Thanks to Novak's victory, the name "Austria" will also be in one of the balls that will be drawn in Britain next week.