The German Davis Cup team should worry about entering the group stage. In the first-round duel in Brazil, the score was only 1:1 after the first day. Olympic champion Alexander Zverev lived up to his role as favorite against Brazilian Thiago Seboth Wild on Friday by a clear 6:4, 6:2 lead in the opening singles. After that, Jan-Lennard Struve made a mistake against the Brazilian top seed Thiago Monteiro and had to admit defeat 3:6, 6:1, 3:6.
The doubles match with Kevin Kraweitz and Tim Potts begins on Saturday at 6pm CET (Sportdeutschland.tv). This is followed by two more singles. First, Zverev plays against Montero in the best singles, and then Struve meets Sibot Wild. Changes are still possible until shortly before the games. Should they win, Germany will advance to the group stage in September.
Fixing things up after the upset in Acapulco
A week and a half after being eliminated at the ATP Championships in Acapulco, Zverev put in a solid performance against the 216th-ranked in the world to achieve the expected success. The German top seed managed a quick break in the first set, after 51 minutes he took the first round with the second ball.
The third-ranked player had no problems with the 21-year-old outsider in the second set either. Zverev received his serve twice from the Brazilian, whose hand was briefly treated mid-sentence, and the safe success on the first try was perfect.
After getting scared in Acapulco, Zverev soon decided only to return to the Davis Cup. In fact, he has already canceled the game because it didn’t fit into his tournament schedule due to the Masters 1000 in Indian Wells that takes place next week.
But after the negative headlines that followed his behavior in Acapulco, Zverev is also interested in polishing his image once again. In Acapulco, after a double loss, Zverev hit the referee’s chair several times with a tennis racket and nearly hit the referee in the foot. After that, Zverev was banned from the entire tournament and fined. In addition, the ATP organization is still investigating the 24-year-old. With the apparent opening success against Wild, he took at least a small step toward improving his image.
