Even without world-class player Alexander Zverev, German tennis players reached the Davis Cup quarter-finals. After the slightly surprising opening victory against the Serbian team around star Novak Djokovic, captain Michael Kohlmann’s team also won 2-1 against Austria from abroad on Sunday in Innsbruck and finished group F in first place. After falling behind, double strength was once again the trump card: in the final match Kevin Krawietz and Tim Pütz left no doubts and scored the decisive point with a sovereign 6: 3, 6: 4 against Oliver Marach and Philipp Oswald as well as against Serbia and the exceptional Djokovic.

Davis Cup: Germany plays Great Britain to reach semi-finals

Germany will play Great Britain on Tuesday (4pm) for their first semi-final position in 14 years. “That means a lot,” Struff said. Thanks to the unexpected group victory, the entourage can remain in Innsbruck for the time being and have not (yet) to travel to Spain. The German Tennis Association had targeted Madrid for the semifinals. With Zverev, the team would be one of the big favorites of the final round, but the winner of the ATP Finals, as a critic of the format, renounces his participation in favor of the holidays.

Two years ago, Germany was eliminated by the British in the round of the top eight. “That, of course, is not easy, but we have confidence in our team,” Koepfer clarified. With the Black Forest man missing 1: 6, 5: 7 against Austrian outsider Jurij Rodionov in the first singles, the Germans had to shake. But disappointing performance against world number 139. In the end, it no longer mattered.

Krawietz and Pütz make sure you get ahead

Struff managed to equalize with a 7: 5, 6: 4 against Dennis Novak. Krawietz and Pütz made sure the team didn’t have to rely on theoretical constellations and other results to move forward. Against Serbian duo Djokovic and Nikola Cacic, the two only got off to a successful start after falling behind in the third set in the tie-break. “It’s a great achievement to beat a team to the world’s number one. It’s unreal,” Kohlmann said: “We all really believed in it, and it paid off in the end.” Struff praised: “We have an incredible double with Kevin and Pütz.”

“There was a bit of anger since yesterday”

Against the world ranking of Austria-118. Novak Struff entered the game under pressure to win. The world number 51 did not show any nervousness in the Olympic Pavilion, where spectators were excluded by the Crown crisis. “There was a bit of anger since yesterday,” said the 31-year-old, who had no chance against Djokovic the day before: “I am going to play Novak and I am the clear loser. Against Dennis I I am going in and I am the favorite. from qualifying. It’s hard to deal with. I did very, very well today. “

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It only got tight when Struff served to win the set in 5: 4, but had to accept that 5: 5. But the Warsteiner immediately took the lead again. “If I don’t break right away, you never know what will happen,” he admitted and explained his key to success: “I played aggressively from the first point, with much more energy, as Novak Djokovic did yesterday.”