At the end of the unusually long summer of tennis in Australia, the German Davis Cup team will meet the home-grown hosts from Friday (3:00 a. m. live at DAZN). Until the first round game in Brisbane Alexander Zverev and Co. a lot of time down under.
The German Davis Cup team had barely arrived in Brisbane and had already suffered its first injury. After a basketball duel between coaches and players, the most prominent members of the team hobbled – and more than ever. Boris Becker had grabbed the high spirits and “really noticed one”, as captain Michael Kohlmann reported. The left calf of the tennis hero hurts, but everyone in the German travel group can live with it. Even Becker himself.
Alexander Zverev and Co. had to cover a “long distance”. Down Under between defeats at the Australian Open in Melbourne and the start of the Davis Cup week in Brisbane, just 1400 kilometres away,”and we are happy to have made it through so well,”says Kohlmann. After all, the Pat-Rafter-Arena has highly motivated hosts waiting for you at the weekend, led by team boss Lleyton Hewitt and Nick Kyrgios, the number one in terms of form.
The first-round game on the ultra-fast hard court is all about moving into the quarter-finals, for which the German team has been waiting for four years. Three times in a row she saved her membership of the world group in the relegation, not always without noise. This time the mood in the team is right, this time Zverev is hopeful. The 20-year-old is anxious to leave the Grand Slam disappointment behind him.
At the Australian Open, the world number five from Hamburg had failed in the third round and thus far too early for his claims. He spent the” free” days in Melbourne with sponsor appointments and training:”Sascha is already hot,”says Kohlmann,”but that’s his basic attitude. At Wednesday’s practice on Wednesday Zverev was still a long way off, but support was close at hand.
Kohlmann, chief consultant Becker and father Alexander senior had gathered on his side:”Extremely high level of expertise”, as Kohlmann says:”Everyone is making a good contribution. The team boss is holding back, leaving the speech to the top player on the court to his colleagues.
Kohlmann, on the other hand, is increasingly taking care of the rest of the team, with Peter Gojowczyk (Munich) and Tim Pütz (Frankfurt) having prepared himself in a resort on the Gold Coast, while Jan-Lennard Struff (Warstein) had entered the double semi-finals in Melbourne. Against Australia it is not only Zverev who counts, Kohlmann knows that. He himself needs alternatives, which his counterpart Lleyton Hewitt has in abundance.
The world rankings-14. Kyrgios feels very comfortable in Brisbane, where he won the ATP tournament three weeks ago. Alex de Minaur, only 18 years old, was in the finals in Sydney and John Peers is one of the best doubles players in the world. Hewitt even thought about replacing himself. After all, the most prominent member of the Australian delegation had recently reached Melbourne’s double quarter-finals. Hewitt is better on foot than Boris Becker at the age of 36.