Home match against Finns

ÖTV finds venue for Davis Cup match

Can the Austrians surprise against the Finns even without Sebastian Ofner?(Bild: GEPA)

Austria's Davis Cup team will once again play a home match in Schwechat: The ÖTV announced on Monday that the international match against Finland will take place on January 31 and February 1 at the Multiversum. The match will be played on clay. A win would be the first of two hurdles on the way to the hoped-for final tournament. It is already clear that a victory in mid-September would mean either playing Hungary away or Canada at home.

However, in the absence of Sebastian Ofner, who is still convalescing after two heel operations, Finland is a high hurdle and Austria are outsiders. A look at their record (6-0 wins) doesn't help. The visitors have two top 100 players in their line-up, Otto Virtanen (ATP 94th) and Emil Ruusuvuori (95th), as well as Wimbledon doubles winner Harri Heliövaara (doubles no. 16).

Will they pull off a surprise?
ÖTV Sports Director and Davis Cup captain Jürgen Melzer is hoping for the best possible team. "I've already consulted with our top players and I'm very happy that they've all declared their willingness to play in the international match against Finland." The players' surface preference was clearly clay. "We all agreed that we are most likely to beat the Finns on this surface. We will give everything to pull off the surprise."

ÖTV President Martin Ohneberg was relieved that another venue had been found in such a short space of time. "The extremely tight time frame set by the ITF is a major challenge for a small association like the Austrian Tennis Association without its own venue."