The German Davis Cup team missed qualifying for the group stage of the traditional tennis competition in September. Debutant Daniel Altmaier has to accept the decisive 2: 3 against the three-time Grand Slam winner Stan Wawrinka in a close duel with Switzerland.
Alexander Zverev suffered on the sidelines and whipped his teammate Daniel Altmaier forward – but it wasn’t enough: After his own defeat, the German number one had to watch helplessly as the brave Davis Cup debutant stopped turning things around in the decisive fifth match could. The German tennis team lost 3-2 to Switzerland and failed to qualify for the group stage in September. “It hurts extremely,” said Altmaier, fighting back tears: “I haven’t been so emotional after a game in a long time because it was such a great honor to be here and to play for my country.”
Despite a remarkable fight, the 24-year-old Altmaier failed in the cauldron of Trier 3: 6, 7: 5, 4: 6 at three-time Grand Slam winner Stan Wawrinka (37). Zverev had surprisingly lost 2: 6, 6: 7 (4: 7) to Marc-Andrea Hüsler and, in front of tennis legend Boris Becker, who was on the German bench like the day before, gave away the first match point to advance . “I actually felt pretty good, but I’ll have more days like that until I’m 100 percent again,” said Zverev, who had been out for a long time with a foot injury: “I can’t change it.”
The Hamburger missed the decision in favor of the German Tennis Association (DTB) team because of a playful step backwards. After Andreas Mies and Tim Pütz had presented with their three-set win in doubles, Zverev was unable to continue his upward trend from the clear win against Wawrinka on Friday. He hardly found his way into the rallies, seemed increasingly helpless after Hüsler’s early break and clearly gave away the first set to the cheers of around a hundred Swiss fans.
In the ensuing break, team boss Michael Kohlmann talked into the struggling Zverev – and it worked initially: the Olympic champion dominated, Hüsler gave up his serve and Becker, who had personally been on the training ground with the team before the matches and possibly before returning to the DTB stands, applauded. But Zverev’s self-confidence was hanging by a thread: He partially trembled his second serves over the net and consequently fell behind again. With his back to the wall, Zverev got up again, but in the end had to admit defeat in the tie-break.
Altmaier then tried his best in front of 4,000 spectators in the sold-out arena. Nevertheless, he had to give up the first set against the confident Wawrinka, who was already playing his third match of the duel. In the second round, the Swiss veteran continued to dictate the game at the beginning, but Altmaier hit back: With an amazing rally, he first took the serve from Wawrinka to make it 4: 4, before finally bringing the arena to a boil with a wonderful praise. In what is now a high-class match, both players fought a few long duels with one-handed backhands, which Altmaier won more and more often. But Wawrinka had the better end in a tight decision sentence.
