In tennis, the most important thing is always what is currently on the table or is approaching: the ball, the shot, the next opponent. So it was hardly surprising that a name wasn’t mentioned when the German men’s team met in Malaga for a public discussion before the first match. Not a word about Alexander Zverev. A little reinforcement in the person of the world number two would certainly not have hurt in the final round. However, the orange trees and the mild climate could not attract Zverev; he has personally declared the tennis season over and is not available for the final round of the Davis Cup. But why complain? The selection of the German Tennis Federation (DTB) has two more top ten players in its ranks, the doubles players Tim Pütz and Kevin Krawietz, who arrived in Andalusia in time.
Krawietz and Pütz, the winners of the doubles competition at the ATP final tournament, were ceremonially welcomed by the entire team two days late. This unofficial world championship title, won on Sunday, gave the colleagues a vitality like a vitamin intake from a thousand oranges before the quarter-finals in the team competition against Canada on Wednesday (12 p.m.). “This gives us a push,” said Jan-Lennard Struff, 34, currently number one in the DTB team, “they are an incredible duo.”
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In any case, a cancellation due to acute lack of success was out of the question for the doubles specialists, who played five matches in seven days in a quick exchange of blows in Turin. Because they view Davis Cup appearances as their top professional duty: “Whether it’s the first round or the final, whether it’s China or Malaga,” said Pütz, 37, in a radio interview in Turin: the oldest team tennis competition, where balls have been flying over the net for 124 years , is always something special for her: “It’s something that suits me and Kevin.”
They only demonstrated how serious they are about their mission in September when they hastily jetted from New York to Zhuhai, just hours after playing the doubles final at the US Open in Flushing Meadows, narrowly losing out to Australia’s Purcell/ Thompson was lost. When the game against Chile came up in the Davis Cup intermediate round in China, they were fresh on the mat again, racket in hand. It is the reliability of his fast response team that team boss Michael Kohlmann is so grateful for: “That shows what he is Davis Cup means to them,” he said: “It’s also an honor for us as a team that they put themselves through this stress and are always ready.” In China, for example, Zverev was also missing.
In doubles, the casting questions don’t arise: Krapütz are irreplaceable
In any case, the value of Krawitz/Pütz for the team, like the constant availability of Jan-Lennart Struff, cannot be measured in tennis balls. Because they defend the pitch on which they play like their castle: Frankfurt’s Pütz is now undefeated in 18 of 19 double appearances in the Davis Cup, while Kevin Krawietz, 32, from Coburg has won 16 of 18 matches played. In fact, they have only had to admit defeat side by side once, when they lost to the Canadians Denis Shapovalov/Vasek Pospisil two years ago: also in the final round, also in Malaga. It’s not just Kohlmann who believes that there is still a score to settle on Wednesday, when the duel is re-matched.
What pleases the national coach about Krawietz/Pütz’s Turin triumph is the fact that it is “also a project that came about through the Davis Cup,” as he explained. The team competition was what brought them together. In the meantime, Krawietz said on Tuesday in Malaga, they can rely on “blind communication”: “Before we went on the ATP tour, we played a lot of Davis Cup matches and close situations. And in 2024 we got to know each other even better: We know 99 percent of the time where the other person will hit the ball.” The fact that their coaches understand each other well also makes their work easier.
Both had already hit balls into the gaps between the lines very successfully and with reflexive confidence: Krawietz won the French Open with partner Andreas Mies in 2019 and 2020, it was the first German triumph in doubles at a Grand Slam in more than eighty years. Pütz became Grand Slam winner in mixed doubles with the Japanese Miyu Kato in 2023, also in Paris. But now in Turin, says Kohlmann, her intensive work has finally been crowned with a major title.
They are ready for action in Malaga – if it even gets that far: The format of the final round stipulates that the doubles only has to force a decision if there is a tie after the two singles. Struff, number 43 in the rankings, will face Shapovalov, the 2021 Wimbledon semi-finalist, who is in dazzling form after a tournament win in Belgrade. Kohlmann wants to decide at short notice whether Yannik Hanfmann, number 95, will be given priority over Daniel Altmaier, number 88, as the second soloist. In doubles, the casting questions don’t arise: Krapütz are irreplaceable.
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