- Switzerland beat Germany 3-2 in the Davis Cup playoffs and reached the final tournament introduced in 2019 for the first time.
- On Saturday, Wawrinka/Stricker initially lose the double against Mies/Pütz, but an outstanding Hüsler beats Olympic champion Zverev and is 2-2.
- Wawrinka finally cheers in the decisive individual against Altmaier and thus brings Switzerland the hard-fought, doubly historic success.
You’ve tried 9 times and failed 9 times. Well, after 2 days of exciting tennis, Switzerland has finally beaten Germany in a Davis Cup duel. But things got tight this time in Trier (GER) in the playoffs for the group phase.
On Saturday evening, the 5th and last game between Stan Wawrinka (ATP 135) and Daniel Altmaier (ATP 91) had to be decided. The Vaud veteran had to fight hard. The 37-year-old led 6:3, 4:2 against the Davis Cup debutant and seemed to have everything under control in his 3rd game within 2 days.
But Wawrinka’s strength was dwindling. He lost the 2nd set and was faced with 2 breakballs at 1:2 in the 3rd round. But he fended them off and immediately started the last turn on this day of roller coaster rides.
For his part, the Romand landed a service breakthrough and after 2:33 hours he just crossed the finish line with 6: 3, 5: 7, 6: 4. This means that the Swiss are in the final round of the 16 best teams introduced in 2019 for the first time, which will take place in September with 4 groups of four at locations that have yet to be determined.
Lost twice, but Hüsler fixes it
It is thanks to Marc-Andrea Hüsler (ATP 53) that there was a decision game at all. After the 1:1 from the day before, Switzerland had initially lost the doubles and was suddenly 1:2 behind: Wawrinka and Dominic Stricker had a good performance over long stretches against the doubles specialists Andreas Mies and Tim Pütz with 7:6 (7:3), 3:6, 4:6 lost out.
Everything about doubles by Wawrinka/Stricker
With his back to the wall and with Olympic champion Alexander Zverev on the other side of the net, Hüsler was in top form. The 26-year-old showed a sensational performance against the world number 14 in southwest Germany and won in 2 sets 6:2, 7:6 (7:4).
The Swiss underdog made Zverev despair early on and kept shaking his head. First the German gave up his serve with a double fault to make it 2-1, then Hüsler got the next break to make it 5-2 with his aggressive and active style of play and a little later the first set.
In the second round, Zverev, who came back from injury this season and had beaten Wawrinka the day before, caught himself a little and the game became closer. However, the advantages were always on the side of the Swiss.
After the break to 5: 4, Hüsler was able to serve to win the match, but Zverev reared up one last time. To zero, he once again took the serve from his opponent. Ultimately, the tiebreak had to decide. There, the Olympic champion shone with a backhand smash, among other things, but he couldn’t match Hüsler in such brilliant form. The Zurich player decided the game after 1:43 hours with an ace – and thus cleared the way for the Swiss success.
More on the success of Hüsler