The men’s tennis team missed the crowning conclusion to a successful week. With qualification for the Davis Cup finals assured, a debutant got his chance – and showed nerves.
The German men’s tennis team will go into the final round of the Davis Cup as group runners-up after a defeat against the USA. At the end of a remarkable week with two clear victories, the heavily depleted selection lost 1:2 to the USA in Zhuhai. Since debutant Henri Squire and Maximilian Marterer came up short, the Germans had no chance of success after the singles and had to let the Americans win the group.
The decision was made with Marterer’s 4:6, 2:6 win against Brandon Nakashima. Squire had previously come close to winning in his Davis Cup debut. However, the 23-year-old lost to Reilly Opelka 7:6 (7:4), 6:7 (9:11), 3:6 after missing three match points.
Kohlmann renounces Hanfmann
Given the 3-0 wins against Slovakia and Chile and the already secured qualification for the Davis Cup finals, team manager Michael Kohlmann was somewhat surprised to have omitted Yannick Hanfmann. Squire, ranked 187th in the world, initially kept his cool for a long time against the former top 20 player and 2.11 meter tall serve specialist Opelka and showed a strong debut.
In the tiebreak of the second set, Squire had three match points, one of them on his own serve. But at that very moment he made a double fault – just as he did a little later on the second set point against himself. “I played good tennis,” said Squire. “I was super nervous at the beginning. There was a lot of tension, but that went away in the first few games.”
Quarter-final opponents still open
Tim Pütz and Kevin Krawietz underlined how important they can be in the finals with a 6:1, 7:6 (7:4) win in the meaningless doubles against the American top duo Austin Krajicek and Rajeev Ram.
The German selection will face a group winner in the quarterfinals of the finals in Malaga from November 19 to 24. The draw will take place next week.
Source: Stern
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