Krawietz and Pütz reach US Open final in double thriller

The German Davis Cup doubles Kevin Krawietz and Tim Pütz are in the final of the US Open and are playing for their first Grand Slam title together. The duo won a semi-final thriller thanks to a stronger performance, 6:3, 6:7 (9:11), 6:4 against Marcelo Arévalo from El Salvador and the Croatian Mate Pavic.

The 32-year-old Krawietz and Pütz, who is four years older, will now face the Australians Max Purcell and Jordan Thompson in the final on Saturday in New York.

“It was a great match,” enthused Krawietz. “We just stuck with it, we could have won it in the second set, but then we should have lost it in the third,” said Pütz.

Match point missed in the second set

The German doubles team was confident in their own serve at the beginning, not allowing the opposing team a break point in the first set. Krawietz and Pütz did not give up their serve in the second set either. In the tie-break they held off a 1:4 deficit, already had a match point, but still had to admit defeat.

In the third round, both were already 2:4 behind, but won four games in the series and were able to celebrate after a strong return from Pütz.

So far, Philipp Petzschner is the only German tennis professional to have reached the men’s doubles final at the US Open, winning the title in 2011 together with the Austrian Jürgen Melzer. Krawietz had won the title at the French Open twice with his former doubles partner Andreas Mies.