Davis Cup: Dramatic success over Cacic / Djokovic - Krawietz / Pütz ensure German opening victory
Kevin Krawietz and Tim Pütz fixed the opening win of the German team at the Davis Cup in Innsbruck. The two beat Nikola Cacic and Novak Djokovic in a highly dramatic match 7: 6 (5), 3: 6 and 7: 6 (5). ( Here you can read the match in the live ticker ).
by SID
last edit: Nov 27, 2021, 11:35 pm
The German tennis men started the Davis Cup finals with a big surprise against Serbia around top star Novak Djokovic and opened the gate to the quarter-finals wide. In the final doubles Kevin Krawietz and Tim Pütz (Coburg / Frankfurt) won 7: 6 (7: 5), 3: 6, 7: 6 (7: 5) against Djokovic / Nikola Cacic and secured the 2: 1 victory. With a success on Sunday (not before 4 p.m. / ServusTV) against hosts Austria, group victory and entry into the knockout round would be perfect.
Dominik Koepfer put the German Tennis Federation (DTB) in the lead in Innsbruck, and the 27-year-old from Furtwangen defeated Filip Krajinovic 7: 6 (7: 4), 6: 4 in the first individual. Jan-Lennard Struff (Warstein) then conceded the seventh defeat in the seventh duel against the Grand Slam record champion and world number one Djokovic at 2: 6, 4: 6.
Djokovic victorious in the individual
Djokovic played the doubles after only a short break, but before that he had been able to save some strength against Struff. The 20-time major champion, who failed in the semifinals at the ATP Finals last week by Zverev, left no doubts from the start, took the lead early in both sets with a break and was allowed to cheer after 72 minutes. In doubles, Djokovic got a fight at eye level, Krawietz / Pütz showed great morals and turned a 2: 4 deficit in the third set.
Koepfer had previously acted with great determination against Krajinovic and earned the win in a match at a high level as a more aggressive player. In the second set, the Black Forest man was already leading 4: 1 and 5: 3, but twice gave up the break lead. But Krajinovic also wobbled too much on serve.