Rainer Schüttler - The team player as Fed Cup team boss
The new Fed Cup team boss Rainer Schüttler faces a difficult task: at the beginning of February, the German team will travel to Brazil.
by Jörg Allmeroth
last edit: Nov 18, 2019, 01:21 pm
He has always been a team player in his own tennis career. One who always felt comfortable in the typical single sport tennis in the community. One who could subordinate himself to a team and endeavored to reconcile interests. And so it was not really a surprise when the German Tennis Association announced last weekend, on the sidelines of the general meeting in Potsdam, the appointment of Rainer Schüttler to the new Fed Cup captain.
Schüttler, the 43-year-old from Korbach's Eppe district, will take office on 1 January 2020, succeeding Jens Gerlach, who left office recently. Gerlach is known to work in the next season as a private coach of Julia Görges. Schüttler, Barbara Rittner, Head of Womens Tennis at the DTB, explained, "Brings all the experience that a team boss needs." Rittner had decisively triggered Schüttler's commitment: "It was my idea: I always persuaded him again," Leverkusen told tennisnet.com , "he'll do a great job."
Germany has to go to Brazil
Schüttler does not have to wait long for his first assignment as head of the German tennis ladies. Already on the 7th and 8th of February, the important away game in Brazil will be in the Fed Cup. It will be no less than the qualification for the newly created final tournament, which will take place in April in Budapest. "I'm looking forward to an exciting task and a great challenge," Schüttler says. "It's an honor to become a Fed Cup captain." Schüttler returns only a few months after saying goodbye to coach Wimbledon's Angelique Kerber back to the big tennis stage. The 43-year-old Nordhesse and the former world ranking first had decided in mid-July not to continue their cooperation. At the same time, both emphasized that the end of the employment relationship would not change the personal, friendly relationship.
Schüttler's contract will initially run until the end of 2020, and both sides will certainly take stock - and answer for themselves whether the liasion should continue. Schüttler's "human and professional competence" is undisputed, said Rittner, even for years the boss of the German ladies. It is unclear with which cast the German selection will approach the game in Brazil. For the top players Kerber and Görges it would be an arduous journey, immediately after the show of strength at the Australian Open - and also because in the middle of February on the Arabian Gulf there are already important compulsory tournaments. However, if the leading players do not compete, they also offer opportunities for profiling opportunities for younger players - because even this is clear: In the DTB team, a generational change must now also be initiated and moderated. Kerber, Görges, Petkovic, Grönefeld: They are all members of the Ü30 faction, they have been holding their heads for tennis Germany for many years.
Schüttler himself was a good ten years in Davis Cup teams with various cast members, he also represented Germany several times at the Olympic Games. In 2004 he won the silver medal in Athens with Nicolas Kiefer. His best season saw the Korbacher 2003, when he moved into the final of the Australian Open and advanced at the end of the season to the semifinals of the Tennis World Championships in Houston. Schüttler is currently also leading the ATP competition in Geneva as tournament director. In his talents he spent several years working together with his former professional colleague Alexander Waske in Offenbach as a subtenant in the Performance Center on the Rosenhöhe.