Novak Notches Notable Upset In Sydney

Dennis Novak earned one of the biggest wins of his career on Monday at the ATP Cup in Sydney, upsetting World No. 25 Guido Pella 0-6, 6-4, 6-4 in two hours and 14 minutes to give Austria a 1-0 lead over Argentina.

The World No. 105 pushed former World No. 3 Marin Cilic to three sets on Saturday, leading the Croat to say that Novak was playing at a “great level”. The Austrian maintained that against Pella, holding all 10 of his service games across the final two sets to stun the lefty.

“I felt not really good in the beginning. It was a huge difference [from] two days ago, the conditions.
I mean, the first set looks quite easy for him,” Novak said. “After the first set I went to a toilet break with Thomas, and I came out and changed a little bit my game and fought back in the game. I think at the end I played really good tennis.”

Novak admitted that Austria’s captain, former World No. 1 Thomas Muster, gave him a “rough speech”. But it was clearly productive, with Novak storming back against Pella.

“He just told me to start moving better, hitting the ball, going for it, not waiting for him to miss,” Novak said. “That’s what I changed. I think I stepped in the court, and I played some really good shots.”

This is Novak’s second-biggest victory by FedEx ATP Ranking, having defeated then-World No. 19 Lucas Pouille in five sets at Wimbledon two years ago. It is Novak’s 14th tour-level victory.

After the first set, it appeared that victory would be difficult. Novak won only 39 per cent of his service points in the opening set, getting broken three times, while winning only three return points. But Novak did not shy away from the occasion, going after his shots to give countryman and longtime friend Dominic Thiem an opportunity to close out the tie against Diego Schwartzman.