ATP Cup: barefoot bowling and mixed training sessions
The German team around Alexander Zverev is looking forward to joining the ATP Cup on Friday. The training is going well, there was also a sporty distraction.
by Jens Huiber
last edit:
Jan 02, 2020, 09:08 am
The roles have changed on the coaching side of the German team compared to the Davis Cup meeting in Brisbane in 2018: At that time, Captain Michael Kohlmann was the man on the bench, now Boris Becker will take on this task. Kohlmann is available with his expertise, the cooperation with the three-time Wimbledon champion Becker is going smoothly anyway.
The general circumstances are also different than in 2018 when Alexander Zverev and Jan-Lennard Struff have to compete against Lleyton Hewitt's team on Friday from 08:30 a.m.CET (live on TV and livestream on Sky and in our match tracker). Firstly, because a WTA tournament is also taking place in parallel (with a great line-up). But also because not only two, but eight teams are gathered in Brisbane.
What brings interesting training pairings: Struff was able to train with Novak Djokovic on New Year's Day, Zverev is practicing with the Serbian world rankings second on Thursday. "There is a lot of mixing," said Davis Cup boss Kohlmann in an interview with tennisnet. So the German number one also played with the Italian youngster Jannik Sinner, who stopped by for a few days for training in Brisbane. Sufficient places are available (in contrast to the Davis Cup final in Madrid), the pairing Kevin Krawietz and Andreas Mies will compete against the South Africans the day before the first assignment.
Zverev and Struff in barefoot bowling
The situation is difficult to compare with the Davis Cup anyway. "The players are there with their own teams," Kohlmann continued. “And we don't have this separate Davis Cup team with our own physios. The mood is a little bit like it is on the tour all year round. ”
The Germans' hopes, of course, rest primarily on Alexander Zverev. He took a few days off with Roger Federer after the South America tour, then focused on fitness. "Sascha is really starting to play again," said Kohlmann. Alex de Minaur is very good for Zverev as an opponent: Only in the very first game, the one at the Davis Cup 2018, did the Hamburg native have problems. In the other three matches, Zverev made a maximum of four games in six sets.
Zverev and Jan-Lennard Struff warmed up as well as double specialist Andreas Mies in barefoot bowling. Not an easy exercise, even if in the end a victory against the Canadian delegation with Denis Shapovalov and Félix Auger-Aliassime came out. It was the first time that they had played this game, Mies said. Some throws were good, some were bad. More consistency can be expected from him and partner Kevin Krawietz on Friday.