The ATP changes the doubles mode. The top German duo Kevin Krawietz/Tim Pütz finds this “exciting”.
from SID
last edited: April 15, 2024, 1:17 p.m
The fact that it often rains and is cold in Munich when the ATP tournament begins at the MTTC Iphitos facility is nothing new for Kevin Krawietz. “In Munich,” says one of the two best German doubles players with a broad grin, “we are always prepared for snow.” In fact, the 2015 final took place on Monday because the precipitation in the previous days also came down as snow.
What Krawietz and partner Tim Pütz, who are number one at the BMW Open, are not yet quite comfortable with are the new rules for doubles. Quite surprisingly, the ATP decided, after which the Masters in Madrid will be played for the first time next week. “It’s going to be exciting,” says Krawietz somewhat hesitantly – and adds with a wink: “I don’t know what to think of it.”
Probably the most drastic change: In the future, only 16 places in a main field will be reserved for the best doubles, the other 16 will go to the best singles players. For the doubles players, that means trembling and waiting to see which singles players also register for the doubles – like Alexander Zverev, who played his way to the final in Monte Carlo with Marcelo Melo. “I think,” says Pütz, “that the ATP doesn’t really know how it’s all supposed to work.”
Krawietz and Pütz are on the safe side
In contrast to the two-time French Open winner Andreas Mies (with Krawietz), currently only 46th in the doubles world rankings and competing in Munich with Jan-Lennard Struff (28th in the singles), Krawietz and Pütz are on the safe side for the time being : Together they are ranked 13th in the world – in Madrid they will start as the sixth best doubles team – and then for the first time they will have to make sure that they keep an eye on the new time limit. If fewer than four rallies are played in the future, only 15 instead of 25 seconds remain until the next one.
Everything will work out, Krawietz and Pütz assure us, “we’ll just try it out now,” and anyway something else is much more important to them: the Olympic Games starting at the end of July in Paris, for example. “We’re already keeping an eye on it,” says Pütz. He adds energetically that this is “perhaps the most important part of this year, it’s important for us.”
2024-04-15 11:16:31
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