Alexander Zverev needed five match balls, then he was standing at the microphone before his colleagues in the player box had taken a deep breath: “I’m incredibly proud that I’m standing here on the pitch,” he announced in the still considerable hustle and bustle. “That’s what the Davis Cup is.”
Zverev, 25, chose a suitable stage to prove in front of a large audience that he is on the way to his usual dominance. In the Davis Cup, in a qualifying duel with Switzerland, he beat three-time Grand Slam winner Stan Wawrinka 6: 4, 6: 1 in front of 4,000 spectators in the Arena Trier on Friday evening. Among those who applauded was Boris Becker in the front row – in the unofficial function of “friend of the team” in the midst of the team.
Zverev has thus equalized for the German tennis selection at 1: 1 and brought the colleagues back on track before the doubles and the final two singles on Saturday afternoon. Above all, he was happy that he was gradually finding consistency after a long injury break. Since the accident in Paris last year, he had only played four official matches up to Friday – and lost in the second round at the Australia Open in January. The win against Wawrinka, he explained now visibly relieved, “was by far the best match since my return”.
Oscar Otte loses his fifth Davis Cup match
In terms of drama, the evening in Trier in front of a sold-out house was the highlight of Zverev’s performance. Because Oscar Otte, 29, from Cologne, had lost the first individual against his Zurich opponent Marc-Andrea Hüsler 6: 2, 2: 6, 4: 6. In Federer-Land, Hüsler, 26, is certainly not the most prominent Swiss tennis player, but as number 53 in the world rankings he is currently the best. Otte gained respect right at the beginning with two aces and confidently won the first round. In the second set, an early, unnecessary break of serve threw him out of rhythm. And after a good two hours, despite the frenetic support of the audience, he had hit his last return far out of bounds, he smashed his racket with a hard, well-aimed throw towards the ground. He had “never played in such a good mood,” he explained, “so it was annoying that I lost.”
For Otte, who made his debut in the Davis Cup team in 2022, it was the fifth defeat in the fifth match – and a missed opportunity in the face of a non-terrifying opponent.
Because the Trier tennis gladiator fight was in the second individual of the day. Zverev would certainly, as Otte reiterated, “become number one in tennis” if a multiple ligament rupture in June had not put him out of action for months. Stan Wawrinka, 37, is an opponent of similar caliber. In an era dominated by exceptional players Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic, he was among the small number of tennis luminaries to snatch Grand Slam trophies from the trio – Wawrinka has three in his closet; Zverev, by the way, none. In addition, Wawrinka was the only active player in the hall to ever win the Davis Cup, in 2014 alongside Federer, who has since retired.
And Wawrinka can still do magic. He equalized Zverev’s early 3-1 lead in the first set with powerful forehand strikes and a one-handed backhand of rare elegance, with which he achieves amazing angles. Zverev only managed the break to 6: 4. In the second set, Zverev took the lead early and from then on seemed more light-footed and more consistent in his shots.
“It will be a process, but I’m glad that I’m playing reasonably good tennis again,” he said afterwards. He’s not yet in the form to win a Gram Slam. However, he has probably conquered the last faint doubts.