Some people can wait a lifetime for a second chance at something but for Dennis Novak, his shot at a place in the Wimbledon main draw has come around just four days after he narrowly missed out on that very opportunity.
Last Sunday, the Austrian had a match point in the Ilkley Challenger final against Germany’s Dominik Koepfer. Had he converted, Novak would have secured a wild card for the Wimbledon main draw and made his top-100 debut.
Instead, he lost the final and endured a sad and lonely train ride to London, where he was due to play his first round of Wimbledon Qualifying the next morning.
Novak shook off the disappointment and beat Thiemo de Bakker on Monday in straight sets before impressing in a 6-4, 6-2, 59-minute win over Australia’s Alex Bolt in the second round of Qualifying on Wednesday.
On Thursday, he faces Mikael Ymer for his second shot in five days at a spot in the Wimbledon main draw.
“I was expecting a really tough match because he’s a very good grass court player,” an elated Novak said after his win over Bolt.
“I had a really, really good day today. I served pretty good, my return was also very good. His biggest weapon, his serve, I took it away from him, so I’m very pleased with my performance.”
Novak, who is at a career-high ranking of 104 this week, reached the third round at Wimbledon last year, as a qualifier, upsetting No.19 ranked Lucas Pouille en route.
The 25-year-old loves to play on grass and has shown tremendous mental strength these past few days to overcome the letdown from Sunday’s final.
“It was really tough. After the finals I wanted to leave Ilkley as soon as possible,” he told Wimbledon.com.
“So I went to the train, I was alone and I had a lot of time to think about everything. Sunday evening was not so easy for me.
“I was going through all the points of the match, my match point, the tie-break in the third. I couldn’t change it after, so I tried to not think about it, which was really tough for me, tried to call as many people as possible to talk about something else.
“My coach came Monday in the morning. I woke up and I had a really good feeling, which was unexpected for me because I expected to feel really bad in the morning.
“But I woke up and everything was just normal. I sat down with my coach, we spoke a lot, and that helped me a lot. The two-set win on Monday gave me also everything and yesterday I had a day off so I could prepare really well for today.”
His best friend and compatriot, world No.4 Dominic Thiem, was on the sidelines watching Novak’s Qualifying first round on Monday, which was a welcome boost for him. Thiem later practised on the lawns of Roehampton, cracking jokes throughout with Novak, who was resting on court behind the baseline.
“He’s my best friend and we hadn’t seen each other for two-and-a-half-months. So when he came on Monday to my match, I was seeing him for the first,” explains Novak. “It was a really good feeling. He’s No.4 in the world, he doesn’t have to come to Roehampton to watch Qualifying but he’s a really, really good friend of mine and it also helps me a lot.”
Novak believes his game is perfectly suited for grass, with his flat backhand, big serves and solid returns, helping him greatly on the surface.
He has many tattoos, one of which reads ‘What goes around comes around’.
“I think everything, just in life, what you give will come back,” he says.
“And maybe those match points on Sunday didn’t come to me, so maybe I can qualify and they come back.”
