Davis Cup 2025: Zverev’s Germany, with a night and comeback against Spain | Tennis | Sport

It’s Alexander Zverev in turtle mode. He doesn’t even want to look at the German, the star, the frustrated giant who has been attacked on both sides: first the Big Threenow two emerging prodigies like Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner – and who now seeks glory in the competition he has so criticized: “This is not the real Davis”. Who would have thought. Observe it and suffer it, after having fulfilled the duty. He won the match against Francisco Cerúndolo, 6-4 and 7-6(3), but before that he lost Jan-Lennard Struff (7-6(3) and 7-6(7) to Tomás Martín Etcheverry) and Germany is betting everything on the tie-break. It’s after one and he curls up in a ball.

Zverev and the current format, something like oil and water. “I played against Nadal in an arena (in Valencia, in April 2018). That was the real Davis,” the German recalled recently, making it clear at the same time that if he had come to Bologna it was to close a cycle in his team, not for him or something similar. But since he’s been here he’s wanted the title, and hence that anguish and that bad moment that happens in the final stretch, when the doubles players Tim Puetz and Kevin Krawietz don’t finish equalizing the duel against Horacio Zeballos and Andrés Molteni, and Argentina suddenly has three match points right there, within reach. It doesn’t happen. He snorts Sashawrapped in his flag, he is already thinking about Saturday’s match (12.00 pm) against Spain.

The victory by 4-6, 6-4 and 7-6(10), obtained on the fifth point of the match and after 2h 30′, qualifies Germany, who despite the circumstances – their men will not go to sleep until late at night – find a double reason for optimism. For starters, Friday’s transition will refresh those tired bodies; and, to continue, he knows he will have Zverev’s ace at his disposal, the most famous tennis player of this final phase. Installed for some time in the third step of the circuit, the one in Hamburg continues to be very far from the two new reference parameters, but now he has the opportunity to close this fateful 2024 which was born for him in the form of a blow (the defeat at the end of Australia) and which could end with a much-needed affection.

Zverev has long been an underdog, a burned-out competitor fighting with a broken mind. Too much frustration, definitely. There is no shortage of a fabulous collection of titles on its bookshelf, from thousands to the maestro, passing through the Olimpico -, but destiny continues to deny him the ecstasy of a Slam and the clock moves forward. He is 28 years old, approaching thirty already in 2026, and while Alcaraz (22) and Sinner (24) enter an unattainable sphere, he deflates. He hit rock bottom at Wimbledon: “I feel very, very, very alone in life – and, despite his efforts to correct course and scare away the evils around him, he can’t find the right path.

This censure of Davis may, then, be the balm (or incentive, depending on how you look at it) that he so badly needs. That’s why the nerves, the tension, the happiness. The commitment he shows. Faced with the general abandonment of figures, some spontaneous and others due to eliminations, he assists and adapts to mend Struff’s defeat on an evening of football that could have become exasperating for his team. In the stands the Argentine fans scream, whistle at their opponents and try to short-circuit them at a certain point. However, they, integrity and methodical by genetic means, support themselves, attack and classify themselves. Magnificent couple Puetz and Krawietz. Two ice floes.

“We are a great team, especially with Sashabut so is Spain. Now we’ll enjoy it and tomorrow we’ll think about the semi-finals”, said a relieved Krawietz. “The atmosphere was incredible”, said Puetz, the ideal partner with whom he won the Masters Cup in 2024. Far, much further away, is 1993 and the experience of the last triumphal episode of his team, which a year ago reached the penultimate round of the final phase, in Malaga, and lost against the Netherlands. This time Spain workers, the optimists, those who never stop believing, will block his path.