Russian tennis player Igor Kunitsyn had the right tactics to face Austria’s Jurgen Melzer in the Davis Cup but tired in the final set, he said on Friday.
Melzer beat Kunitsyn 6-2, 6-7 (3), 6-4, 3-6, 6-1 in the first rubber to give Austria hope for their first Davis Cup World Group first-round win in a decade.
“The most important task in a match against Jurgen is to play as consistently as possible because he plays extremely aggressive tennis,” Kunitsyn told chempionat.ru.
“Outperforming him in terms of speed is almost impossible, so my task was to contain that onslaught, to dictate long rallies. I reckon, in principle, I couldn’t manage to do it the whole match.
“But overall I coped with the tactical job. I’m sorry, in the fifth set it didn’t work out.”
Austria’s Andreas Haider-Maurer is playing Alex Bogomolov, who is making his debut for Russia after switching allegiances from the United States.
Saturday will see a doubles match between Austria’s Oliver Marach and doubles specialist Alexander Peya and the Russian pair of Youzhny and veteran Nikolai Davydenko, the world no. 51.
Russia, a two-time champion, has never played Austria in the Davis Cup before, although the Soviet Union won two meetings in the 1980s.
