Tennis, Australia: The German tennis men around Alexander Zverev were eliminated in the semifinals of the ATP Cup in Melbourne. The team around the world number seven Zverev (Hamburg) lost against Russia 1: 2. Zverev lost to fourth in the world ranking list Daniil Medvedev 6: 3, 3: 6, 5: 7 and had to be treated on the back in the second set. Jan-Lennard Struff (Warstein) had previously suffered a defeat at 6: 3, 1: 6, 2: 6 against Andrej Rublew. Struff and Kevin Krawietz (Coburg) won the only point in the final double, who prevailed against Yevgeni Donskoi / Aslan Karazew 6: 3, 7: 6 (7: 2).
Russia will face Italy in the final. The Italians won 3-0 against Spain, which faced again without the ailing Grand Slam record winner Rafael Nadal. The German team, supervised by team captain Mischa Zverev, had won in the group phase against Canada and defending champion Serbia with world number one Novak Djokovic. Last year, the German team failed in the group stage at the premiere of the team competition.
Alpine skiing, Garmisch: The German ski racers experienced a conciliatory second part of their World Cup dress rehearsal. Romed Baumann finished tenth as the best starter of the German Ski Association at the Super-G in Garmisch-Partenkirchen on Saturday. He was 0.78 seconds behind the Austrian Vincent Kriechmayr, who triumphed just ahead of his compatriot Matthias Mayer (+0.17) and the Swiss Marco Odermatt (+0.49). Andreas Sander (+0.94) finished 13th. In the downhill run the day before, the two best German speed drivers of the current season had finished 14th and 24th.
Simon Jocher (+1.14) reached a decent 18th place in the Super-G on Saturday. Manuel Schmid (+2.27) and Dominik Schwaiger (+2.30) finished in 41st and 42nd place. Thomas Dreßen, who returned after a hip operation, had skipped the two home races after his training comeback on Thursday and wants to do it first get back into racing at the World Cup in Cortina d’Ampezzo, which starts on Monday. For Josef Ferstl, the season was over after his violent fall on Friday.
Soccer, Spain: Bad news for Real Madrid: According to media reports on Saturday, captain and defense chief Sergio Ramos will be operated on on the meniscus of the left knee and will be out for weeks. The intervention should take place on Saturday, reported the radio station Cope and other media, citing club sources. Officially, however, there has been no announcement from the club of national player Toni Kroos. The 34-year-old Ramos, whose contract expires on June 30th, sustained the injury on January 14th in a 2-1 defeat by Athletic Bilbao in the semifinals of the Spanish Supercup and then missed three games. But the club had hoped that an operation would be avoided. Ramos even trained with the team on Thursday. Like the Madrid sports newspaper Brand and other media have estimated that Ramos will have to take a break of around six to eight weeks. Among other things, he would miss the two Champions League round of 16 games against Atalanta Bergamo.
Basketball, NBA: Daniel Theis celebrated a victory with the record champions Boston Celtics. The Celtics won 119-115 at the Los Angeles Clippers and are now fourth-best team in the Eastern Conference with a record of twelve wins and nine losses. Theis was only used for just under nine minutes due to knee problems, but the injury is apparently not serious. “I don’t think it’s worse. He had something similar last year,” said Celtics coach Brad Stevens: “But the burden is enormous, so we have to be smart with the boys.”
A farce, however, developed around Kevin Durant of the Brooklyn Nets. The two-time NBA champion was initially taken out of the starting line-up for a short time before the 117: 123 against the Toronto Raptors because of the corona health protocol, but was then used a little later. In the third quarter he was then completely removed from the game. An NBA spokesman said a corona test from a Durant contact person during the game was positive. Shortly before the game, however, there was an unclear result in the test. The German professionals Moritz Wagner and Isaac Bonga suffered a defeat with the Washington Wizards. The club from the US capital lost 95: 122 in the Miami Heat, the two Germans each scored three points
2. Bundesliga: League leader Hamburger SV stumbled on the way back to the Bundesliga. The Hanseatic League parted from FC Erzgebirge Aue in its stadium 3: 3 (3: 1) on Friday evening and remain at the top regardless of the results of the competition at the weekend. Simon Terodde with two goals (14th minute, 30./Foul penalty) and David Kinsombi (22nd) were successful for the Hanseatic League. Jan Hochscheidt (26th), Clemens Fandrich (50th) and Florian Krüger (61st) met for the Saxons. The long possible victory was gambled away. But coach Daniel Thioune’s team expanded their streak to ten games without defeat (7 wins, 3 draws).
“If you lead 3-1, it feels more like two lost points than one won,” said Thioune at Sky. In the first half, Hamburg had shown the hosts in phases. So they left no doubt who will leave the pitch in the idyllic Erzgebirgsstadion as the winner. Dynamic, strong in two fights and a sure combination, they presented the strong home Auer with serious problems. The lead should have been higher: Moritz Heyer (16th) and Aaron Hunt (49th) only put the ball on the post (16th). “We dominated the opponent. I had a good feeling,” said Thioune.
Football, Bundesliga: Defending champion VfL Wolfsburg keeps in touch with front runners Bayern Munich in the women’s Bundesliga. At the start of the early 19th matchday on Friday evening, the team from Lower Saxony defeated fourth-placed Turbine Potsdam 3-2 (2-1) and reduced the gap to first place to two points for the time being. On the thick blanket of snow in the Wolfsburg AOK Stadium, the hosts needed some time to get into the game against the courageous Potsdam women. The VfL lead by new signing Rebecka Blomqvist (23rd minute) was initially compensated for by Selina Cerci (30th). But in return, Wolfsburg again made it 2-1 through national player Kathrin Hendrich (31st). Shortly before the break, Lea Bahnemann from Potsdam, who had already been cautioned with yellow, saw yellow-red (42nd) after a hard attack against Lena Oberdorf (42nd). But a mistake by Turbine’s new goalkeeper Emma Lind made it possible for Zsanett Jakabfi to score the winning goal (57th). The decimated Potsdam women then lacked the strength to endanger VfL’s victory.
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