Davis Cup: Alexander Zverev - First training on the Hamburg hard court
Alexander Zverev trained for the first time on Friday at Rothenbaum in Hamburg for the intermediate round in the Davis Cup, which will be held from September 13th to 18th.
by Jens Huiber
last edit:
Sep 10, 2022, 07:18 am
Alexander Zverev is basically well acquainted with Hamburg's Rothenbaum, even if the last visit by the German number one to the traditional ATP Tour 500 tournament was three years ago. In 2019, Zverev made it to the semifinals, where he narrowly lost to Nikoloz Basilashvili in three sets. However, on ashes. For the Davis Cup, however, all four venues - in addition to Hamburg, these are Glasgow, Valencia and Bologna - had to use the same hard court. And, if you don't play in a hall anyway, close the roof. Just like at the Rothenbaum.
Yesterday, Friday, local hero Alexander Zverev completed his first training session there with Mikhail Ledovskikh, his regular hitting partner, who also acts as a kind of coach. Also father Alexander Zverev sen. looked at the training, Germany team boss Michael Kohlmann anyway.
Zverev traveled to Brazil
Kohlmann nominated Zverev as number one early on, knowing full well that there is also a risk in this decision. The 25-year-old played his last match in the semifinals of Roland Garros, where he fell against Rafael Nadal so unluckily that he tore all the ligaments in his ankle. The idea of perhaps returning to the US Open was discarded late, but nonetheless. Now it should be the Davis Cup. Alexander Zverev is certainly not lacking in the will to come in for his country. The fact that Germany reached the intermediate round at all is also due to the fact that the current world number two had spontaneously traveled to Rio de Janeiro for the away game.
And it's not like Captain Kohlmann can draw on unlimited resources: Because Oscar Otte, the nominal number two, only returned from an injury break at the US Open. And lost there in round one against Hubert Hurkacz. That leaves Jan-Lennard Struff as a single option. And that's not a bad thing: Even if Struff's successes in recent weeks have not been particularly numerous, experience has shown that Warsteiner can always improve in international matches. The double Kevin Krawietz and Tim Pütz is meanwhile beyond any doubt.
So the big question in the coming days will be how intensively Alexander Zverev throws himself into training. And whether he can discipline himself enough in his matches that he doesn't run the risk of injury.