After their success on clay in Paris, the two German double winners of the French Open are also successful on hard court and celebrated a perfect debut at the ATP tournament in Cologne. Only the audience missed the two players.
Cologne (dpa) – The two-time Grand Slam winners Kevin Krawietz and Andreas Mies have won their opening match at the tennis tournament in Cologne.
The current French Open winners in doubles prevailed 6: 4, 7: 5 against the Zverev brothers at the ATP tournament and made their first appearance in the semi-finals. “It’s always nice to come to Germany and look forward to the games here,” said Krawietz after the win.
In the semifinals, the German duo will now face the winner of the game Lukasz Kubot / Marcelo Melo (Poland / Brazil) against Marcus Daniell / Philipp Oswald (New Zealand / Austria). The day before, the last German double in the competition had reached the quarter-finals without a fight due to an injury in the opposing team. Krawietz / Mies had not yet taken part in the first of two ATP tournaments in Cologne.
Originally, they had expected spectators. “It would have been my absolute dream to play here in front of a few thousand spectators. It’s a real shame that we’re playing in an empty hall here. I was often here as a little boy, and saw ice hockey, boxing and concerts in front of 22,000 spectators. I already imagined how awesome it would be to play tennis in front of a full house here, “said Mies from Cologne.
Alexander Zverev, who will meet French Adrian Mannarino in the individual quarter-finals on Friday, had been looking forward to the German duel with the winners of the French Open and pointed out that they had never lost to the two before. That has changed this time. “We are satisfied that we won it in two sets. The two are great players, have already won double titles and in the decisive set it’s always uncomfortable against them,” said Krawietz.
Local hero Oscar Otte was eliminated in the round of 16. The 27-year-old from Cologne, who only moved into the main draw because of an injury to the Serbian Danilo Petrovic, was defeated by the world number nine Diego Schwartzman from Argentina 3: 6, 2: 6. Otte thus missed the entry into the round of the last eight players.
© dpa-infocom, dpa: 201022-99-43920 / 4
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Tournament in Cologne
