Melzer with Bopanna to Australia - and with Petzschner to Wimbledon?
Jürgen Melzer will end his active career on the ATP tour as planned after the Australian Open. But Austria's double legend does not rule out a short comeback on a very special occasion.
by Jens Huiber
last edit: Nov 20, 2020, 09:25 pm
Jürgen Melzer and Edouard Roger-Vasselin are allowed to run again at the ATP Finals 2020 this Saturday. Their opponents, Rajeev Ram and Joe Salisbury, entered the tournament in second place, but have not yet been completely convincing. After all, the two showed great comeback qualities against Kevin Krawietz and Andeas Mies, thus saving themselves in the semifinals.
There will be the last, in the better case the penultimate joint appearance of Melzer with his French partner. He has ambitions to participate in the season-end tournament in the coming year. It would of course be negligent if Roger-Vasselin did not look for another partner with whom he would also contest the first major of the year.
Once again with Petzschner to Wimbledon
Jürgen Melzer, on the other hand, has already found his playing partner for the farewell tour Down Under: Rohan Bopanna will revive the Indian tradition at Melzer's side. Older sports fans will remember that the great Leander Paes has already served on the side of the great Jürgen Melzer.
From February, however, the tasks as sports director in the Austrian Tennis Association called out that the career on the ATP tour was thus obsolete. With which Melzer has no problem, as he emphasized in the English part of his press conference after the match against Marcel Granollers and Horacio Zeballos. It would be nice if you could still play at the highest level when you step down.
Jürgen Melzer still left a back door open for himself - with best regards to Philipp Petzschner. If his favorite German partner, with whom the 39-year-old won Wimbledon in 2010 and the US Open in 2011, would be fit and in good shape by the Wimbledon tournament in 2021, then Jürgen Melzer could not think of a better place to say goodbye. After all, almost everything started there in 1999 with the victory in the junior competition.