Center Court View.
Photo: dpa
Hamburg. The German Olympic starter Tim Pütz and his New Zealand partner Michael Venus won the doubles competition at the ATP tennis tournament in Hamburg. The duo won on Sunday against the favored Kevin Krawietz from Munich and Horia Tecau from Romania 6: 3, 6: 7 (3: 7), 10: 8.
At the Olympic Games in Tokyo, Pütz and Krawietz will compete together as doubles in a few days. Both will fly to Japan on Monday. The two-time French Open winner Krawietz has to do without his regular partner Andreas Mies. The Cologne resident is still out for a while due to knee surgery.
The 33-year-old Pütz and his equally old partner initially had no major problems with their top seeded rivals. Especially in the second set they seemed to want to make short work of them and were already 5: 1 ahead. But Krawietz / Tecau put up a fight, equalized at 5: 5 in the meantime and forced the tiebreaker. The tournament favorites won this. The third set played in the match tiebreak, however, Pütz / Venus narrowly secured with 10: 8.
© dpa-infocom, dpa: 210718-99-426320 / 2
.
