THE MODERATOR: Good morning, everyone. Welcome to the Austrian Davis Cup team. I'll ask the first question.
Jurgen, your thoughts on the week ahead?
CAPTAIN JURGEN MELZER: Well, first of all, we have been very warm welcomed here. It's a great venue, amazing event, especially for us. We don't participate every year in great events. For us it's an honor to be here.
So far practice week has been fine. We have had a lot of sessions. So far also played on the center court, which is very nice.
All in all, it's just talk now. Wednesday counts. We try to be as ready as possible for Wednesday, then we see if we can have an upset here.
THE MODERATOR: We'll start with questions.
Q. Captain, you played this competition a lot as a player. Now you're a captain. How is the Davis Cup week different for you now being a captain than when you were a player?
CAPTAIN JURGEN MELZER: Well, when I was a player, it was about me (smiling). The team tried to get me ready for the weekend. Now it's different.
I mean, being a captain, you have different roles, you have different players. I mean, every player has different needs. One needs a lot of input, the other one's fine with just feeding the balls, getting him the towel and drinks.
You got to prepare them well. You learn over the years what every and each player needs. That's our job in the team. It's not just me, it's the whole team behind from physio, to our team manager.
We try to prepare them as good as possible, then hopefully on Wednesday they are in great shape and are ready to play.
Q. Filip, can you talk about this experience, being part of the elite aspect of Davis Cup, the Final 8, being in a group with so many other experienced Davis Cup nations, as well? The run you've had this year, how much of a benefit is all that going to be coming into this week?
FILIP MISOLIC: Yeah, I mean, of course it helps for me. But still we're just very happy to be a part of it. To have this chance for each of us to be here, it's very important. Just like to enjoy the week.
Q. Captain, you didn't get an easy draw, but you saw that Jannik and Lorenzo finally decided to withdraw. Does this change your perspective on your first match? Second question is, what would you say is the biggest asset of your team? Is it having spent the two previous rounds all together, having a strong collective?
CAPTAIN JURGEN MELZER: Well, first of all, I mean, Jannik and Lore, I think you don't have a lot of players in the world that easily you put them in instead of them and the team has the same strength.
In the end it's better for us, but we are still the underdog in that tie. If you look at the players that Italy has and the players that could replace them, they're still ranked ahead of our top player. I would say the chances rose a little bit. In the end, yeah, we need to do our job as good as we can.
Coming back to your second question, the players that sit here, I'm proud of them because they have been there, they have raised their hand whenever I called up for them. That's a team that's sitting here.
We have been running for each other, we have been fighting for each other, not only for the last two ties, but we go back. We have four-tie winning streak. This is something that builds.
Years ago we played Ireland away. We said, Okay, the goal is to get to the Finals. Maybe it was a little bit optimistic at that time. In the end, we're here, and that shows a lot about the spirit of this team.
Q. Jurij, can you give us a sense of what it's like playing Davis Cup as opposed to being on the tour as an individual.
JURIJ RODIONOV: I feel like, as Jurgen said, in Davis Cup it's more about the team because if you're on your own on the tour, it's all about yourself. Here you're a team. You have friends around you who support you, who fight with you, also for you. I think that's the special thing for the Davis Cup, that you represent your country.
I feel like every one of us feels honored to be able to represent Austria. We're going to fight till the end, give 100% each, try our best.
Q. Three people have been very quiet. Alexander, Lucas and Lukas. Just comment on being part of this group and the experience of this, what it can do to benefit you on the regular tour.
LUKAS NEUMAYER: Yeah, it's an honor to be here. I think it shows, like, what a team we had when you look at the matches we won already.
Me as a single player, especially the whole year is, like, only looking for my own. Now these Davis Cup weeks, they're so special to me. I like to compete as a team. I think this is really the strength, the team spirit.
For sure the opponents are, like, better ranked than us, but I think we know which players we have in our bag when we're on the court that we can beat against anyone.
Yeah, it's a privilege to play in this competition, yeah.
LUCAS MIEDLER: Yeah, as Lukas already said, it's a great honor to be here, it's a privilege. As an Austrian team, yeah, it is not granted that we make this every year. Also as Filip said already, we also kind of want to enjoy what we achieved already. Doesn't mean like we're here just for fun, we want to beat those guys.
Yeah, in the end compared to the tour, of course we don't play for ourselves, we play for the team, which makes it pretty special because we had a great run so far. But I hope it's not the end yet.
We want to perform well and we'll see what we can do against Italy, then we'll see what's coming after that.
ALEXANDER ERLER: I'm on the team since 2022. Davis Cup is just twice a year unfortunately. It's always something special. Hopefully we can get a win now here over Italy.
Q. Filip, you're likely to have a lot of support in the stands. How important is that to have the crowd?
FILIP MISOLIC: Well, I'm not sure about that (laughter). But for sure there will be a lot of Austrian fans. I think also the Italian crowd is for tennis, not just for their team, just to have a good match on the court.
I mean, I love to play in a full stadium, enjoy the atmosphere. It brings some of my best tennis. Just to be part of it, to feel the energy, to feel the energy on Wednesday, I'm just looking forward to it.
Q. Jurgen, you've played three times Italy's captain in the past. I don't know if you had time to chat with him so far. If you met him, what did you say to him?
CAPTAIN JURGEN MELZER: I asked him who is going to play against us so I can have a better choice which players I'm going to put in (smiling).
No, obviously we go back a very long time. We're born in the same year. We know each other since juniors. When the draw came out, we shared a few text messages. We have been very warm welcomed not only by Filippo but by the rest of the Italian team. Since we know each other for a long time, anything we need, anything they could provide to us, they did.
I think it's going to be a nice atmosphere on court. Obviously everybody wants to win. Yeah, as I said, I won my first title against Filippo. He will always be special to me (smiling).
Q. Jurgen, in Davis Cup, you often see big upsets. This year we've seen the big legacy nations losing to the smaller nations. How much inspiration does that give you when you go into the final series like this, the opportunity to beat one of the powerhouses?
CAPTAIN JURGEN MELZER: Well, you're absolutely right. This year, but not only this year, there has always been upsets in Davis Cup over the past years or since I followed this fantastic event.
The good thing for underdog nations is that you only have to be better on that one day. You don't have to be consistently better than the other team. Any nation can have a bad day, no matter how much or how many players they have in front of you.
In the end, you got to prepare well and you got to believe. There has been in the past so many upsets, even to big nations. I mean, who would have believed the United States lose at home to the Czech Republic.
Even us in Hungary, we have been not the favorite. Coming here to Italy, who knows. You win one of the first two singles and you're in a live doubles match, anything can happen. That's what we have to look forward to. That's what we have to believe in.
As I said, our team has been performing well over the past four ties. Why not a fifth tie?
Q. Alexander and Lucas, how much do you feel the doubles players have become more important with the recent changes to the Davis Cup format, now that the matches are decided in three instead of five? Do you feel that the point you could bring to your team is more important than it used to be when the matches were played in five?
ALEXANDER ERLER: I hope it's going to be after the singles 2-0 for us, so we don't need to play (smiling).
Of course, yeah, when it's 1-1, doubles is very important obviously. Yeah, we will see after the first singles how it's going to be then.
LUCAS MIEDLER: Of course it's going to be more important if it's 1-1. It's the deciding match, so...
Once it's 1-All, it comes down to that match. Apparently it's very important then. Doesn't change a lot for us. I think as a player, we want to win every match. In the end, yeah, every day on the tour: if you lose, you go home; if you win, you keep playing. I hope the boys get us in the position, then we see what we can do.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports