US Open: Historic defeat for Austria in the last major of the year
After no Austrian was represented in the main field in the singles, there was nothing to gain for the Austrian doubles at this year's US Open.
by Stefan Bergmann
last edit: Sep 03, 2021, 07:57 pm
Even morbid optimists, who incidentally also include the author of this article, will have to look really long in order to gain something positive from the last Grand Slam event of the year from an Austrian point of view. Before the start of qualification for this year's US Open, colleague Lukas Zahrer from Standard pointed out on Twitter that this year's edition of the major in Flushing Meadows could become a historic tennis low. And after today's first-round defeat by Oliver Marach and Philipp Oswald in the double competition, it is now clear that the worst fears have really occurred.
Not a single Austrian match success
With 2: 6, 7: 6 (3) and 2: 6, the Styrian and Vorarlberg team lost out against the Israeli-South African team Jonathan Erlich and Lloyd Harris. And after Jürgen Melzer had already said goodbye to the Australian Marc Polmans yesterday from the tournament, it is now clear that Austria has not been granted a single match success in one of the main competitions of the US Open 2021. In the individual, Dominic Thiem (wrist injury) and Dennis Novak (birth of his son) were not there, all Austrians who competed in the qualification (Jurij Rodionov, Sebastian Ofner, Julia Grabher and Barbara Haas) had lost sooner or later in the preliminary round.
1985 was the last time no local athlete competed in a Grand Slam tournament at the Australian Open. However, Alex Antonitsch was in doubles at the time and was able to survive at least the first round against the Irish-German duo Matt Doyle and Damir Keretic alongside Michiel Schapers (Netherlands). The second round was the final destination in three sets against the Australians Mark Edmondson and Kim Warwick. In the end, we can only hope that the Australian Open 2022 will paint a more colorful picture from an Austrian perspective.
Here is the double tableau at the US Open 2021
nycmap