It was 3:3 after the singles, the doubles had to decide. In the singles doubles, Novak/Ofner – the winners of Saturday’s semi-final against the Wiener Athletiksport Club – didn’t have much to gain against Erler/Schmidt. On three, Miedler and ÖTV sports director and Davis Cup captain Jürgen Melzer were able to fend off a set ball in the second set and prevent a tie-break match. So the decision was made in the doubles, where Irdning with the strong German ATP professionals Gojowczyk / Lenz against Madarasz and ex-professional Dominic Weidinger was actually the clear favourite. But it was here of all places that the big drama took place: “We came very close to losing that,” said Irdning’s team captain Erich Reisinger. “At 5:9 in the match tie-break, Mauthausen had four match points, four master balls. At that point I almost didn’t believe in it anymore. But hope dies last, and with the support of the opponent, who missed two matches at match point, we still turned it around. It has never happened before. Our nerves are on edge,” Reisinger breathed through after this incredible thriller. With 6: 7, 7: 6 and 12:10, Gojowczyk/Lenz had the better end for themselves and the club from Styria on their second match point, after which all dams broke: “That was huge, you can’t imagine that introduce. There was only more cheering,” said Reisinger, but also paid tribute to Mauthausen for the gripping final fight.
Pühringer proud despite disappointment: “Huge advertising for tennis”
Reisinger confessed: “I already said yesterday that it would definitely be tight, but I still thought that we would normally play it at home somehow. But nobody expected it to be so extremely close.” The fact that he judged the chances of the final to be 50:50 earned him the slightest accusation of understatement from Mauthausen’s team captain Hannes Pühringer. On the other hand, like many experts, he saw his team as blatant outsiders, “and I would have said all that today, after such a close final,” confirmed Pühringer. “A full professional team plays against a skeleton team (Indeed, Mauthausen had to give in to the strong Hungarians Attila Balazs, Zsombor Piros and – in contrast to the semi-finals – Fabian Marozsan plus Dominik Aigner, who played in the regular round in the Final Four; note). We are today with three coaches (Schmidt, Haider-Maurer, Weidinger; note) and a magistrate (Statzberger; note) run in.” Reisinger only smiled mildly at the attestation of being the clear favourite: “Hannes just likes to stack low.” Pühringer stuck to it: “A lot went our way, our boys played really well. It’s crazy that Madarasz beat Novak, led Schmidt against an opponent with set and break and played so sensationally in doubles too, ‘AHM’ (Haider-Maurer; note) played so well.” And yet it wasn’t quite enough.
