Davis Cup: Germany leads! Jan-Lennard Struff surprises Denis Shapovalov
Surprisingly, Germany is 1-0 up in the quarter-finals of the Davis Cup Finals in Málaga against Canada (live on ServusTV). Warsteiner Jan-Lennard Struff caused a surprise in the first individual of the day and brought Denis Shapovalov to his knees in three sets.
by Michael Rothschädl
last edit: Nov 24, 2022, 07:38 pm
For the German DTB team, an almost impossible task arose in the quarter-finals of the final eight at the Davis Cup Finals in Málaga. Which bore the name of Canada - and can be traced back in particular to their strong individual duo, consisting of Felix Auger-Aliassime and Denis Shapovalov. The Germans, on the other hand, were missing Alexander Zverev, the country's number one - as in Hamburg - due to injury.
Denis Shapovalov on the Canadian side had to deal with the German number two, Jan-Lennard Struff, in the first individual of the day. Warsteiner, who was recently plagued by injury worries, felt comfortable in the role of an outsider from the start, not only fought back strongly, no, even put his stamp on the first sentence. The German managed the decisive break early on, which Struff - also thanks to an outstanding service performance - transported to a 6: 3 set win.
Straw ice cold
The Canadian didn't want to let it sit, knocked on Struffs early in the service games and then made his first break of the match in the middle of the second set. Now the world number 18. no longer get off track, served safely in front and sent the match into a decisive third set after just over an hour of play.
In this it was again up to Jan-Lennard Struff to set a first scent mark. The Warsteiner, who opened the deciding set with his own serve, made the break in the fourth game of section three and safely increased to 4:1. But Shapovalov struck back, in an extremely competitive service game at 5: 3, the Canadian managed the break in the last push-off. The world number 18 also had to play in the following service game. fight, but Shapovalov was able to thwart a match point - a little later a tie-break had to make the decision.
In this, Jan-Lennard Struff got the first point as a setback with a strong return - and pulled away 4-1 with great tennis. The Warsteiner continued to be better, got the second point as a setback at 5:2 - the decision: After almost exactly two hours, Struff made the surprising three-set triumph perfect. Oscar Otte already has the first match point for Team Germany against Felix Auger-Aliassime (live on ServusTV).