Tennis: Peya celebrates its comeback after almost three months

London (APA) – On August 17, Alexander Peya played his last double match so far. He has now chosen Croatian Nikola Mektic, after his elbow injury, one of the biggest stages of tennis for his return. At the ATP finals, Peya starts Sunday (7 pm CET) against Colombian number 2, the Briton Juan Sebastian Cabal / Robert Farah, in his third Masters.

The performance alone is already a victory for the 38-year-old Viennese. The first really "sharp" trainings for months felt surprisingly good, reported Peya Saturday in London, the APA news agency – Austria. "At the moment, it looks good.I have survived the last days of training well, the elbow holds up right now.I am not 100% pain free, but it's certainly better than expected. "

But apart from the injury, of course, the lack of practice of Austro-Croatian mating is a gap. "We have not played for three months." I noticed that yesterday at the points played, it's a little rusty.But here you definitely have three games because you can also einspielen, "said Peya with a smirk.

A duel with the second Austrian of the double competition of the eight best teams of the year would be possible in the semi-final at the earliest. "It's nice not to play in the same group," said Peya about Oliver Marach / Mate Pavic. And paid the respect of the duo. "The season that both players played: you can only take off your hat and they will finish the season as number one."

Even the second participation duet of ÖTV is not in full possession of its powers. Mate Pavic contracted a stomach injury in Paris. "The two formations went well, the service is not 100 percent, we have two days left, which is good," said Marach, winner of the Australian Open with Pavic in January. , then the final at Roland-Garros. "I think that will work." In the lobby of the O2-Arena, by the way, the biggest poster of Marach with Pavic is hanging, that he's never seen of himself .

The group "Knowle / Nestor" begins its games Monday. For Marach a "madness". "When I saw that, I thought that they were all thrown together, against which we had all lost this year." You know you are number 1, but that's not what you say in such an area. "I am now here for the fourth time and it is something sensational for me," said Styrian, 38, who wants to take advantage of this special atmosphere as much as possible.

The first goal is to survive this difficult group. "And of course everything is possible from the semifinals," said Marach. The best appearance ever seen of an Austrian at the Masters, while Julian Knowle reached the final in 2007, was still far away. To launch in this direction, during the broadcast of the final of the Open de France against Pierre-Hugues Herbert / Nicolas Mahut (FRA), a successful revenge would be at least a good badet.