The heavily understaffed team qualified for the Davis Cup finals with unexpected ease. Now it’s exciting to see who Germany’s next opponent will be – and what the team will look like
The German Tennis Federation is hoping that top player Alexander Zverev will return to the team for the first German Davis Cup title since 1993. “I think in order to really keep this salad bowl going, everything has to fit together – from the players, from A to Z in the end,” team boss Michael Kohlmann (50) told the German Press Agency. “At the end of the day, we all have big goals, not just us as an association, but also the boys. And everyone wants to win this Davis Cup again at some point.”
In Zhuhai, China, the German team managed to qualify for the final round in Malaga, Spain, from November 19 to 24 with very few replacements. The DTB had justified the absence of world number two Zverev from the group stage shortly after the US Open in New York with the stress of traveling. These would also have been so great for Zverev because the German number one has the Laver Cup in Berlin coming up in the new week
Can Struff and Koepfer be back?
Injured Jan-Lennard Struff and Dominik Koepfer were also unavailable. “There’s definitely hope that we’ll gain one or two more players in Malaga. We’ll have to see who that will be,” said Kohlmann.
After the two opening wins against Slovakia and Chile (both 3:0), the German team lost 1:2 to the USA at the end of the group stage and only scored one point thanks to the successful doubles team of Kevin Krawietz and Tim Pütz. The duo had reached the final at the US Open. In addition to Krawietz/Pütz, the team in Zhuhai also included Yannick Hanfmann, Maximilian Marterer and Henri Squire.
The team finished the group in second place behind the USA and will face a group winner in the quarter-finals in Malaga. The draw will take place on Thursday
