Austrian players face a demanding Davis Cup Final 8 in Bologna on November 26, well removed from the ATP Finals field in Turin where the world’s top eight singles players contest their season-ending tournament.
Thomas Muster made four appearances at the season-ending tournament during his career, securing just two match wins against eight defeats on fast indoor hard courts.
In 1990, the Austrian defeated Ecuador’s Andres Gomez to avenge a French Open semifinal loss suffered six months prior. Muster added a win over American player Michael Chang in 1996, while his 1995 campaign yielded only defeats.
In 1997, the then-59-year-old competed in a single match as an alternate and lost to Carlos Moya. He never advanced to the semifinals of the tournament.
Dominic Thiem reached the championship match twice, falling just short of the title after single-win group stage exits in 2016 against Gael Monfils, 2017 against Pablo Carreno Busta, and 2018 against Kei Nishikori.
In 2019, Thiem defeated Novak Djokovic and Roger Federer in the round-robin stage. He later described his 6–7, 6–3, 7–6 win over Djokovic as one of his best matches in terms of level of play in an interview with Kurier.
“Spielerisch einer meiner besten Partien überhaupt,” Thiem told Kurier.
Thiem defeated Alexander Zverev in the semifinals before losing a tight final to Stefanos Tsitsipas. The following year, Thiem notched group-stage wins over Tsitsipas and Rafael Nadal, defeated Djokovic in a dramatic semifinal, and won the opening set of the final against Daniil Medvedev before losing in three sets.
Austria recorded two doubles final appearances at the season finale. Jürgen Melzer reached the championship match in 2020 at age 39 alongside France’s Edouard Roger-Vasselin.
Julian Knowle reached the 2007 doubles final paired with Sweden’s Simon Aspelin, two months after the pair won the US Open title together.
Worth a look
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