DTB team misses group victory: “Got the maximum out of it”

“We can be very satisfied with the week. We were given few chances beforehand,” said Kohlmann in Zhuhai, China. “Hopefully the way the boys performed surprised many people in Germany.” His team “did a lot of things right” at the event and “got the most out of it.”

The defeat against the USA was already sealed after the singles. First, Davis Cup debutant Henri Squire beat Reilly Opelka 7:6 (7:4), 6:7 (9:11), 3:6, saving three match points, then Maximilian Marterer lost 4:6, 2:6 to Brandon Nakashima. In the final doubles, Kevin Krawietz/Tim Pütz reduced the deficit to 1:2 with a 6:1, 7:6 (7:4) win over Austin Krajicek/Rajeev Ram.

“I was super nervous at the beginning. There was a lot of tension,” said newcomer Squire. “I gave myself the chance with the match points, but unfortunately I didn’t use them.” It was a “decent debut” and “one that I can be happy with when I look back in a few days.”

Germany travelled to China without Alexander Zverev, Jan-Lennard Struff and Dominik Koepfer and had comfortably secured their ticket to the quarter-finals in Spain with two 3-0 victories over Slovakia and Chile. Last year the team had missed the knockout round, and Germany had been waiting for its fourth Davis Cup victory since 1993.

The last duel with the record winner USA was even longer ago. In 1991, Andre Agassi defeated a German selection led by Michael Stich 3-2 in Kansas. The two nations have faced each other ten times in the old Davis Cup format with home and away games, with Germany winning three times, including legendary duels such as in 1987 in Hartford and 1989 in Munich, each time with Boris Becker as the match winner.

The team competition has long since lost the reputation it enjoyed in previous decades, and several players had cancelled their participation in the preliminary round in the week after the US Open. In addition to Zverev, the two New York finalists Jannick Sinner (Italy) and Taylor Fritz (USA) were also missing. The hosting of the German group in China also caused criticism, as the host was not even there.