Meaningless tennis drama at German debut

The German Davis Cup team suffered its first defeat against the USA at the end of the preliminary round and missed out on winning the group. However, the weakened selection of team manager Michael Kohlmann had already qualified for the final tournament of the best eight nations in Malaga (November 19th to 24th) on Friday. In the quarter-finals, they will now face a winner from the other three preliminary groups.

The defeat against the USA in Zhuhai, China, 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. Kevin Krawietz/Tim Pütz and Austin Krajicek/Rajeev Ram were scheduled to play in the final doubles.

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.