Jurgen Melzer appointed as Austria's Davis Cup captain

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• ATP Tennis

Former world No. 8 Jurgen Melzer has been appointed as the new Austrian Davis Cup team captain, per Nikolaus Fink. Melzer, 40, retired from professional tennis in late October in Vienna. Melzer teamed up with world No. 3 Alexander for the last tournament of his career as the two lost to John Peers and Filip Polasek in their opener at the tournament.

Austria failed to make it past the group stage at this year's Davis Cup Finals and Stefan Koubek is no longer the captain of the Austrian team.. Melzer, who made the Davis Cup quarterfinal with Austria in 2012, will replace Koubek as the team captain.

Retiring in Vienna was special for Melzer

"I viewed this as a bonus, to get to play one last match at home,” Melzer told the ATP website. “Saying goodbye at home is special to me. It’s where my career started, it’s where I had a lot of success." Melzer, who turned professional in 1999, wanted to always show tennis in a good light.

“I’ve always tried to be a good ambassador for the sport and make this sport as likeable as possible. What I liked today is the past two days, [for those] playing on this court in the city there were not a lot of spectators,” Melzer said.

“But today they actually showed up and I could say goodbye and that meant a lot to me… I will remember this one for sure." Melzer said winning or losing will not be the things that he will be missing the most in retirement.

"You think of all the stories, of all the things that make you smile. I didn’t think so much about victories. It’s just the time that you’ve spent on Tour, meeting all those people, being friends with some, getting closer with some,” Melzer said. “Those are actually the things I’m going to miss the most, not winning or losing."