F. COBOLLI/F. Misolic
6-1, 6-3
Team Italy - 2
Team Austria - 0
THE MODERATOR: We'll take questions, please.
Q. Filip, what made the difference today? Last time you played him, it was two close sets. What was the difference tonight? Crowd?
FILIP MISOLIC: Of course, many, many things. It's been a while we played. I mean, six months is a lot. He raised his level. I raised my level. But still it's a big difference in his game on hard court than mine.
After this match, it's not easy, but at least I know where I am, what I have to practice on to be on his level. He's not 22 in the world. I mean, he has all shots on this surface... I didn't have any tactic today for this.
Q. Captain, how do you guide your players to play in front of such crowds? What do you say to them?
CAPTAIN JURGEN MELZER: Well, you obviously try to prepare them that they know what's coming. In the end, if you haven't experienced that before in your life, in the beginning definitely overwhelming.
But I felt like the crowd was not really the issue today. First of all, it's a very fair crowd. Was a great atmosphere on the court.
It has been two completely different matches. The last one was unfortunately very one-sided. The first one I think was a very good match from both players. Just decided by a couple of points.
I don't really think that the crowd was too much of an issue today.
Q. Jurgen, history is a big 'if'. If that first match had gone into a third set, do you think there would have been a great shift in momentum, the level of the team enthusiasm?
CAPTAIN JURGEN MELZER: I mean, we knew going into today that probably the better shot to win a match was the first one, if you talk about matchups, you talk about how two game styles are on one court.
The thing is that he didn't do a lot of things wrong today apart from one service game in the second set where you could see, okay, the nerves got to him a little bit.
In the end he had three set points. Matteo came up with five big serves, four of them were over 215. That's also class. That shows why he's there, why he was where he was.
But definitely if we go into a third set, I think momentum shifts, Jurij starts to believe more. Who knows who would have won that match. I think he would have deserved to win the second set.
Q. After this run to the Finals this year, what are you going to take into next year?
CAPTAIN JURGEN MELZER: Well, I think we as a tennis nation should take a lot of positives from this year. We have been playing against way better nations, if you just look at the rankings.
We fought as a team. We fought as one. We got to the Final 8 in a very tough sport if you look at how many people, how many countries are involved in that competition. Being a small country like Austria, having a chance to play in the Final 8 is great. We take a lot of confidence from that.
It also helps we're going to be seeded for the draw for next year. That always helps.
We still need a good draw. There is still a few nations that are not seeded that probably have better players than us.
We're looking forward. We come with a proud chest next year, hopefully having a home tie, giving the Austrian fans something to cheer for.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports