Four millimetres. That’s the thickness of compacted sand announced for the court put up on the WAC-Platz, the oldest surviving football stadium in Vienna, where Austria played its first international match in 1902. Austrian captain Jürgen Melzer warned the court would play slow, he told HLN.
Four millimetres, and they measure them. At our club, the crushed brick on court 4 gets measured with a foot, and by January it has migrated towards the baseline. A slow court, fine, I’ve played slow all my life, except nobody chose it for me. Four millimetres away, mind you.
On Friday at 13:00, Gauthier Onclin opens the tie against Jurij Rodionov. It’s his first ever Davis Cup match. The 25-year-old from Liège had already been picked for the trip to Croatia in February 2024 without playing a single match. He came into the squad after the injury withdrawals of Alexander Blockx (ATP 27) and Raphaël Collignon (ATP 47), alongside Kimmer Coppejans.
On his opponent, Onclin told DH: “He beat me this year and he’s at home, but we’ll talk it over with Steve. The advantage is that he knows me well. I know he’s going to help me a lot, before and during the match.” He added: “Honestly, I wasn’t really expecting to play here when I was still on a Challenger in France a fortnight ago.”
Two weeks between a Challenger and a first Davis Cup singles, I can picture that journey very clearly. On slow clay the real question is the strings, and nobody ever asks him about that.
Friday’s second singles pits Zizou Bergs (ATP 38) against Lukas Neumayer. On Saturday at 11:00, Sander Gillé and Joran Vliegen face Lucas Miedler and Neil Oberleitner in the doubles. The first country to three wins qualifies for the Final 8, from 24 to 29 November in Bologna.
It’s true, we checked: RTBF Sport.
