With quick sidesteps, Dominik Koepfer rushed from side to side and brought himself and his upper body into extreme lateral positions. Standing low and close to the baseline, he slid across the blue hard court as if the surface were made of the finest sand. He reached every ball hit by his opponent, no matter how hard. The loud, regular squeaking that Koepfer made with his sports shoes resounded every second through the empty multifunctional hall in the Hungarian city of Tatabánya.
Koepfer maintained this intensity for another half hour with his training partner Jan-Lennard Struff. It matched the simultaneous activity of the coaching and functional teams around the pitch last Wednesday. People made phone calls, exchanged ideas, and reassured each other every minute until the decision gradually filtered through. Alexander Zverev would not be traveling due to illness. Koepfer later said about the situation: “I wasn’t told that, but I thought about it for a while.” That’s how the 29-year-old trained.
More confident than expected
Things rarely got more hectic in the following days than in those minutes two days before the Davis Cup qualifying match in Hungary. The decision didn’t surprise the local players; no one was sad or worried. Two days later, the German Davis Cup team solved the away task, which was classified as tricky, with the established player Struff, the returnee Koepfer and the X-factor in the team, the world-class double Kevin Krawietz/Tim Pütz, in the end more confidently than expected.
Dominik Koepfer comes, sees and wins: As a replacement for Alexander Zverev, the German is making a success of himself in Hungary. : Image: dpa
During the already meaningless fifth match that Krawietz and Hungary’s Zsombor Piros played on Saturday evening, team captain Michael Kohlmann must have caught himself in the dugout thinking: How urgently is the world-class player Zverev needed in this team?
All four contribute a point
Finally, a few hours later, at the final press conference, a quartet sat next to Kohlmann, who were not only equipped with an ice-cold beer each, but also with success. All four contributed a point each to the 3-2 win. Koepfer mastered the most important task on Friday against the highly gifted Hungarian top power Fábián Marozsán, who has already defeated Carlos Alcaraz. On Saturday, Krawietz/Pütz kept their nerve against the Hungarian double Maroszán/Valkus and 6,500 loud Hungarian fans. Struff, who lost to Marton Fucsovics the day before, decided the international match against substitute Mate Valkusz.
Marozsán, Hungary’s captain Zoltan Nagy explained his decision not to play in the individual, had to struggle with the after-effects of a stomach infection from Melbourne. There were also problems with the thigh. This made it easier for the Germans to qualify for the group stage, which will be held in four different cities from September 10th to 15th. For organizational and financial reasons, there will be no German location other than in 2022, the President of the German Tennis Association, Dietloff von Arnim, confirmed to the FAZ
The team has matured without Zverev
Back in Hamburg, Zverev remained to support the team despite persistent foot problems. It was heard from the team that Zverev found this role difficult. Unlike the semi-finals in 2021, when Zverev ruled out taking part in the final round as an opponent of the new format, he has now declared his general willingness after the Kosmos consortium was eliminated.
But the team has matured without Zverev, has a dynamic that has grown over the years and has repeatedly stood out in Hungary for its team spirit and unpretentious leaders. In the weeks of the Davis Cup, the group’s cohesion in the most positive sense is more reminiscent of a consolidated district league team than of the self-focused individual athletes that tennis professionals sometimes have to be.
Published/Updated: Recommendations: 2 Jannik Schneider Published/Updated: Recommendations: 2 David Lindenfeld, Melbourne Published/Updated: Recommendations: 6
In order to get closer to success at a Davis Cup finals, Captain Kohlmann knows that you need a Zverev in the form he recently had at the Australian Open. There is also clarity about this among fellow players, who publicly emphasized that Zverev belongs to the team. There were no more intensive statements. Instead, whenever Zverev’s future was asked, there were small jokes and smiles among the players before answering.
“He wished the boys good luck”
Kohlmann has not yet been able to talk to Zverev about possible participation in the group phase. “There was contact about the cancellation on Wednesday. He wished the boys good luck. Now we have a little time until September to talk to everyone,” said Kohlmann, who recalled the busy calendar and the additional physical strain of the Olympic Games in the summer.
Successful without their star: Captain Michael Kohlmann (lr), and the players Jan-Lennard Struff, Dominik Koepfer, Tim Pütz, Kevin Krawietz and Maximilian Marterer: Image: dpa
The US Open ends in the week before a possible group phase, and a week later in September Zverev will probably be in the squad for the financially more lucrative Laver Cup. Despite all the love for the national team, the prize money is also an issue for the currently active Davis Cup players.
For the appearance in Hungary, each player receives less than 10,000 euros from the world tennis association ITF. There are larger, more lucrative pots of money, especially at the finals in Malaga. In 2023, the equivalent of around six million euros were distributed. A Zverev in normal form would make it more likely to get to these pots.
