Even without Alexander Zverev, the German tennis men have reached the quarter-finals of the Davis Cup. After the slightly surprising opening win against the Serbian selection around top star Novak Djokovic, the team of captain Michael Kohlmann also won 2-1 against outsiders Austria on Sunday in Innsbruck and finished group F in first place.
After falling behind, the double strength was again the trump card: In the final match Kevin Krawietz and Tim Pütz left no doubts and scored the decisive point with a sovereign 6: 3, 6: 4 against Oliver Marach and Philipp Oswald as well as against Serbia and exceptional Djokovic.
Germany will play against Great Britain on Tuesday (4 p.m.) for the first semi-finals in 14 years. “That means a lot,” said Struff. Thanks to the unexpected group victory, the entourage can stay in Innsbruck for the time being and does not (yet) have to travel to Spain.
The German Tennis Association had given Madrid as a goal in the final round – for the semifinals. With Zverev, the selection would be one of the big favorites of the final round, but the ATP Finals winner, as a critic of the format, waives his participation in favor of the holiday.
Two years ago Germany was eliminated by the British in the round of the top eight. “That is of course not easy, but we have confidence in our team,” Koepfer clarified. Because the Black Forest man failed with the 1: 6, 5: 7 against the Austrian outsider Jurij Rodionov in the first individual, the Germans had to tremble. But the disappointing performance against the world number 139. In the end it didn’t matter anymore.
Struff managed to equalize with a 7: 5, 6: 4 against Dennis Novak. Krawietz and Pütz made sure that the team did not have to rely on theoretical constellations and other results to advance. Against the Serbian duo Djokovic and Nikola Cacic, the two only made a successful start after falling behind in the third set in the tie-break. “It is a great achievement to beat a team that is number one in the world. It’s unreal ”, Kohlmann had acknowledged:“ We all really believed in it – and it paid off in the end. ”Struff praised:“ We have an amazing double with Kevin and Pütz ”.
On the tie Krawietz / Pütz was again reliable
Against the Austrian world rankings-118. Novak Struff went into the match with the pressure to win. The number 51 in the world did not show any nervousness in the Olympic Hall, where spectators were excluded due to the Corona crisis. “There was a bit of anger in there from yesterday,” said the 31-year-old, who had no chance against Djokovic the day before: “I go in against Novak and I’m the clear outsider. I’ll go in against Dennis and I’m the favorite of the ranking. It’s difficult to deal with. I did it really very well today. “
It only got tight when Struff served to win the set at 5: 4, but had to accept that 5: 5. But the Warsteiner immediately took the lead again. “If I don’t break right away, you never know what will happen,” he admitted and explained his key to success: “I played aggressively from the first point, with a lot more energy – like Novak Djokovic did yesterday made me. ” (dpa)
Source From: Tagesspiegel
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