Davis Cup: In doubles everything speaks for Germany
While Severin Lüthi will not send any double specialists into the Davis Cup meeting with Germany, Michael Kohlmann will fall back on two absolute experts in Tim Pütz and Andreas Mies .
by Jens Huiber
last edit: Feb 02, 2023, 05:03 pm
By Jens Huiber from Trier
Attempts to praise Tim Pütz? pointless. Another insight that you could take away from the training session in the Trier Arena on Thursday morning. The devious smash at just before 11 a.m. local time was the first in the past four days, Andreas Mies noted appreciatively, while Oscar Otte had to work as a lone fighter on the other side of the net.
Pütz and Mies, this pairing has never existed in the Davis Cup or on the ATP tour (only in 2009 for two games at Auburn University, as Mies noted on Thursday). Which does not speak against a point gain for Germany compared to the Swiss. On the one hand, because Severin Lüthi, the Swiss team boss, has nominated five players who concentrate on the individual. Leandro Riedi is number 212 in the doubles charts, but Lüthi knows from Stan Wawrinka that he has already won at least one (pre)decisive doubles in the Davis Cup: 2014 in the Davis Cup final in France. Alongside Roger Federer.
Pütz with only one defeat, Mies still flawless
Tim Pütz, on the other hand, comes to Trier with a 12:1 record in official international matches, the only defeat may still hurt a little: Last autumn, Pütz lost together with Kevin Krawietz in the quarter-finals against Vasek Pospisil and Félix Auger-Aliassime in three sets. Which also meant the end of the German title dreams.
Andreas Mies is no stranger to successes with Kevin Krawietz. The two triumphed twice in Roland Garros, decided towards the end of the 2022 season to go new and therefore separate ways. After the birth of his first child, Krawietz is now trying his hand at Pütz, and Mies together with John Peers. That worked very well at the Australian Open with the quarter-finals.
Mies still has a clean slate in the Davis Cup: the man from Cologne won all three matches against Belarus (2021), Chile and Argentina (2019) with Kevin Krawietz. This series is to be continued on Saturday in Trier.