Doubles shine at the ATP Finals
Krawietz/Pütz make German tennis history
November 13, 2024, 8:59 pm
Professional tennis professionals have been meeting at the end of the season for more than half a century, and no German gymnast has ever reached the final. Until now. Kevin Krawietz and Tim Pütz also won their second team race and thus secured their start.
US Open finalists Kevin Krawietz and Tim Pütz were the first German doubles team in the tournament’s 55-year history to reach the semi-finals at the end of the tennis season. The pair defeated the Italians Simone Bolelli and Andrea Vavassori 7:5, 6:4 at the ATP Finals in Turin and survived the group stage quickly thanks to their second victory in the second match.
According to the ATP Men’s Association, no German doubles team has ever been in the top four. “Really,” Krawietz said, “it’s a long history of tennis.” “It’s great to play in front of the Italian people, it was cool.” On Saturday, Krawietz and Pütz will play in the finals of the tournament, in which the eight best pairs in the game will take part. The tournament will be held in Turin in the same way as the individual tournament with Alexander Zverev.
With good praise, Pütz got the first break of the match, which was equivalent to winning the first set. The Davis Cup pair already had two points at 5:4, but the Italians, with the help of the spectators, stopped them. In the second set the decision was made with a break of 6:4. “The difference was small, we could have easily lost the first set,” said Pütz.
The final group match against Rohan Bopanna / Matthew Ebden (India/Australia) is on Friday. At the start, the German pair had already been surprised by the success of French Open winners Marcelo Arevalo and Mate Pavic (El Salvador / Croatia).
Pütz/Krawietz did not qualify for the end of the season as the eighth-best team of the year and are participating as a team for the first time in their second year together on the ATP tour. Krawietz had participated in the ATP Finals three times before, but never made the top four. The participation is the first for Pütz; Unlike singles Zverev, the German double will not be on vacation after the ATP Finals. The pair will compete against the German team in the Davis Cup final in Malaga next week.