Daniell and Oswald stun Australian Open champs in Doha

Monday, 08 March 2021

Marcus Daniell and his Austrian partner Philipp Oswald have stunned Australian Open doubles champions Ivan Dodig and Filip Polasek in the first round of the ATP 250 tournament in Doha.

Playing their first match since reaching the quarter finals at Melbourne Park last month Daniell and Oswald have turned in an inspired performance to beat the Croatian Slovakian combination 6-3, 6-7 (2) 11-9 in 1 hour 47.

Oswald served for the match at 5-4 in the second set but was broken on the deciding point and the 3rd seeds levelled things up by winning the tie break. But they recovered quickly and went up a mini break in the match tie break (first to 10) but their opponents clawed their way back into it. Daniell and Oswald eventually converted on their third match point.

Daniell says it was a tough match." We played really well throughout. We got close to getting a double break in the second set but it didn't fall our way. Os was serving for the match at 5-4 in the second set and we really didn't do anything wrong. Os served well, a lot of first serves and those guys connected a bunch of returns. That's the confidence that comes from winning a slam. It's credit to us that we took the second set loss in our stride. We got out to an early lead in the match tiebreak and again those guys showed their quality in coming back. But in the end we played a couple more points well than them." 

"We are really happy. It wasn't easy, especially for me coming here from the States, quite a lot of jet lag, so to be playing on the first day was another challenge and we rose to it and beat one of the best teams in the world and we have to take that and let it give us confidence and build momentum going forward." Daniell said.

Daniell and Oswald are ranked 41 and 37 respectively in the ATP doubles rankings while Dodig and Polasek are 9th and 10th. The Kiwi and Austrian combo will face either Aussie John Millman and his Spanish partner David Hernandez Vega or wildcards Slovenian Blaz Rola and Qatar’s Mousa Shannan Zayed in the quarter finals.

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