The German national tennis team celebrated a victory against France at the Davis Cup in Hamburg for the first time in 84 years. However, a shadow fell on the 2-1 win on Wednesday in the intermediate round game: The ranks were very sparsely occupied.
The jubilation was great on Wednesday evening shortly after 9 p.m. in the Rothenbaum stadium when Kevin Krawietz and Tim Pütz won the decisive double against Nicolas Mahut and Arthur Rinderknech in the tie-break of the third set and thus for the first German success against the French Selection since 1938 ensured. The duo from Coburg and Frankfurt am Main, still undefeated in the Davis Cup, was enthusiastically celebrated by the audience.
However, there were only around 2,000 fans who made the tennis temple in the heart of Hamburg tremble in these moments. The audience response at the first appearance of the DTB team was disappointing. Not even a quarter of the seats in the arena were occupied.
The duel between Belgium and Australia (0:3) the day before was even watched by just under 400 supporters.
Struff: “It’s just brutally expensive”
The fact that so many ranks in the 10,000-seat stadium remained empty caused Jan-Lennard Struff great dissatisfaction. The Warsteiner, who put Germany ahead with a 6: 4, 2: 6, 7: 5 win against Benjamin Bonzi, criticized the ticket prices at the press conference after his match in clear words.
“I was shocked when I saw the ticket price. That was the problem. That was absolutely understandable, that probably not so many fans will come because it’s just brutally expensive, and I think that’s a shame,” said the 32 -year-olds.
The cheapest tickets cost 75 euros
The tickets for the first of three intermediate round games of the DTB team cost between 75 and 150 euros. A proud price that had already been set before Olympic champion Alexander Zverev canceled due to injury. The local hero and tennis superstar, who supports his team from the stands at Rothenbaum, is now missing the event’s driving force.
Will there be more fans against Belgium and Australia?
And so, despite the historic German opening success, it seems questionable whether the ranks in the two upcoming games of the hosts on Friday against Belgium and Sunday against Australia (both start at 2 p.m.) will be much better occupied. For team manager Michael Kohmann, however, that is not decisive.
“It’s just something special to play in front of your own audience. And then it doesn’t matter whether there are 2,500, 5,000 or 10,000 spectators. They were great matches. That makes me proud. I’m incredibly happy that we’re going into this one group stage and hope that it will continue like this on Friday,” said the 48-year-old. As an employee of the DTB he probably couldn’t say anything else…
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Hamburg Journal | 09/14/2022 | 19:30 o’clock
