Davis Cup: 35 years after Gothenburg - Becker, Steeb, Jelen reunited in Trier
The crowd of tennis celebrities at the Davis Cup in Trier: Boris Becker , Carl-Uwe Steeb and Eric Jelen , the champions of 1988 and 1989, will be accompanying the German team in different roles this weekend in the comparison with Switzerland.
by tennisnet.com
last edit: Feb 03, 2023, 03:17 pm
It's not quite 35 years since Germany won the Davis Cup for the first time in the Scandinavium in Gothenburg. And the three players who scored the points against the favored Swedes are at the German team's Davis Cup meeting in Trier this weekend. In different roles.
Carl-Uwe Steeb, who laid the foundation for the German victory in 1988 with his sensational five-set win against Mats Wilander, is the expert for the broadcasting Tennis Channel. By the way, alongside Mischa Zverev, who was also on the court as a sparring partner for Andreas Mies and Oscar Otte on Friday.
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Boris Becker, who gave Stefan Edberg no chance at all in three brilliant sentences, observed Otte's training very closely and repeatedly gave the Cologne native relevant information.
Becker and Co. defend title
Then as now, the third member of the team was and is Eric Jelen. With him, Becker won the doubles match against Edberg and Anders Järryd after a 2-0 set deficit in five rounds, making it clear that the Germans had triumphed after only the second day. Incidentally, Jelen enjoys home advantage in Trier: The now 57-year-old, who won his only ATP title on grass in Bristol in 1989, was born here.
The fourth man in Gothenburg was Patrik Kühnen, tournament director in Munich for many years.
Becker, Steeb, Jelen and Kühnen defended the title in Stuttgart in 1989, and their last win to date was in 1993, when they didn't give Australia a chance with a 4-1 win in Düsseldorf. However, there was only Patrik Kühnen at the start. As individual players, Marc-Kevin Göllner and Michael Stich became Davis Cup champions.