US Open: Jürgen Melzer - Last hurray with Jo-Wilfried Tsonga
Jürgen Melzer wants to know one last time: At the US Open 2021, the two-time major champion in men's doubles will start alongside Jo-Wilfried Tsonga .
by Jens Huiber
last edit: Jul 29, 2021, 10:16 pm
From Jens Huiber from Kitzbühel
When Jürgen Melzer strolls through the Kitzbühel tennis club, there is hardly a cell phone in his pocket. Not that of the Austrian tennis legend, of course, but a selfie with Melzer is still very popular. Especially since the now 40-year-old has not yet completely given up his professional tennis racket. Actually, an appearance at the Olympics would have been planned, but the announced partner Dominic Thiem withdrew before his wrist injury. And Alexander Peya, the second option for Melzer, is still on the way back. But not quite there yet.
And so Jürgen Melzer didn't even play that many matches at the Olympic Games via TV or stream, only the elimination of Oliver Marach and Philipp Oswald "against the Colombians". Probably those tennis players who make themselves unmistakable just by their nationality - of course Juan Sebastian Cabal and Robert Farah are meant.
Melzer and Tsonga at the US Open
Melzer tried his hand at André Begemann at Wimbledon. The performance against Sander Arends and Matwe Middelkoop was good, but not crowned with success. That's it? But no! "I would like to win a bit more," said Melzer at a spontaneously called press conference of the Austrian Tennis Association in Kitzbühel. At the US Open. As a partner of Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, as Melzer mentioned almost casually. This pairing has absolute star power, as Melzer also knows: "If Jo plays, more than four people are sure to come."
That same Jo should also have played in Kitzbühel, alone, tournament director Alex Antonitsch could only vaguely plan with the French old master, who then became a father for the second time before the start of the tournament. And of course did not travel to Tyrol. Jürgen Melzer, on the other hand, traveled a lot in his first few months as sports director of the ÖTV, of course also to Tyrol, he covered a good 20,000 kilometers on business in a very short time. Melzer has his base in the Bundesleistungszentrum Südstadt, where Günter Bresnik also works. The cooperation works very well, the short distances would help. Basically, however, one wants to promote functioning player-coach relationships, regardless of where in Austria, as ÖTV President Magnus Brunner emphasized.
Fulfilling job as a sports director
In any case, he enjoys his job, says Jürgen Melzer again, even if he has not yet been able to tackle all the projects. His contract initially runs for three years, Melzer can already imagine that he will take on the task for a longer period of time. There are different goals, at the international level you want to see as many players as possible in the junior competitions of the Grand Slam tournaments. But that takes time, as Melzer knows: "Rome wasn't built in a day either."