The German tennis team will be hit hard by this absence: Alexander Zverev will be missing in Hungary
Top player Alexander Zverev will be missing from the German Davis Cup team in the upcoming qualifying match in Hungary.
The Australian Open semi-finalist is still suffering from an infection that weakened him during his defeat against Russia’s Daniil Medvedev in Melbourne, the German Tennis Federation announced. Maximilian Marterer will replace the 26-year-old from Hamburg in the team for the match this Friday and Saturday in Tatabanya.
“We hoped until the end that Alexander would also be able to support us against Hungary after his strong performances in Australia. Unfortunately, there wasn’t enough time for him to get fit in time,” said the German Davis Cup team manager Michael Kohlmann. “Now we have to stand together as a team to compensate for his absence.”
Zverev had blood work done and a virus was detected, Kohlmann reported. “He still had a fever until yesterday. When you talk to him, you can hear it, his voice is still cloudy. We had to make a decision today. ”
Kohlmann convinced by the team – even without Zverev
Kohlmann was convinced that the German team could hold its own without Zverev, but also made it clear: “It makes a difference whether you have a top ten player here. He can always make the difference. I think that all the matches are 50:50 now. I think we have to make sure that we push ourselves to the limit in every match.”
The team also includes veteran Jan-Lennard Struff, Dominik Koepfer and doubles specialists Tim Pütz and Kevin Krawietz. After his opening defeat at the ATP tournament in Montpellier, left-hander Marterer immediately agreed to stand in for Zverev and is now expected in Hungary on Thursday. The 92nd-ranked player in the world had already done this successfully last September in the relegation match in Bosnia-Herzegovina
In Hungary, the focus is now on qualifying for the group stage of the Davis Cup in September. In Fabian Marozsan and Marton Fucsovics, the hosts have two players from the top 100 of the world rankings in their line-up.