There is still more than three months to find the right line-up for the Davis Cup match against Australia. The German Davis Cup captain Michael Kohlmann has of course long since been sounding the field.
Michael Kohlmann was absolutely right in his assessment: Sam Groth will not be the decisive factor in the first-round duel with Australia at the beginning of 2018. The double-specialist will end his career after the Australian Open, skip the meeting with Germany as well as all subsequent tournaments. Forever and ever.
Kohlmann, the German Davis Cup captain, can put aside the scouting card for Groth and concentrate on Nick Kyrgios,”whereas Kyrgios is a player I actually always take a good look at”, as Kohlmann explained in a conversation with tennisnet. Recently, there is the possibility that the teams will actively involve a fifth team member in the competition, whether this will bring about a significant improvement for Germany is an open question.
“For Portugal, my fifth husband would have been Peter Gojowczyk,”says Kohlmann. Instead, however, he played successfully in Metz instead – and won his first ATP Tour title at the same event. The options the German team boss has for the game with Australia will be revealed at the beginning of next year, Philipp Kohlschreiber could take himself out of the lottery pot, as he indicated in a recent conversation with the “Süddeutsche Zeitung”.
For Michael Kohlmann, however, this week’s event will be the next ATP-Challenger on German soil after the premiere in Ismaning. Yannick Hanfmann won the World Ranking, scoring 80 points for the world ranking and the 25-year-old from Karlsruhe, Germany, stalking up to the top 100. Hanfmann was in Portugal, losing his last singles match against Joao Domingues. For Australia he is out of the question, but Tim Pütz has a better chance of winning the final in Ismaning, alongside Dustin Brown in the doubles. Against the Portuguese, Pütz won the important double point with Jan-Lennard Struff, a letter of recommendation for 2018, although the expected Australian duo should bring more class to the court than Gastao Elias and Joao Sousa.
Germany’s undisputed number one, Alexander Zverev, is of course set for the opening match – the question is how the Hamburg native will perform in Melbourne:”Sascha has played a lot this year,” says Kohlmann,”I can imagine that he will reduce his schedule a bit in 2018, but this doesn’t necessarily affect the Davis Cup, especially since Zverev is a candidate for the Davis Cup. And also has some unpaid bills with Nick Kyrgios. It would be in the spirit of Michael Kohlmann’s idea that Alexander Zverev should settle this in Australia at the beginning of February 2018.