For women, the German tennis stars failed in the individual competition at the Australian Open in the second round at the latest; for men, Alexander Zverev, the last remaining DTB professional, fought his way into the quarter-finals on Monday. A yield that doesn’t exactly cause storms of celebration. However, the doubles with German participation could take the coals out of the fire.
After the pairing of Kevin Krawietz and Tim Pütz made it into the quarter-finals on Sunday, Yannick Hanfmann and Dominik Koepfer also made it into the round of the last eight teams on Monday – a huge surprise.
The DTB duo, who have rarely been on the court together so far, defeated number four seeds Marcel Granollers from Spain and Horacio Zeballos from Argentina 7:6 (7:5), 6:7 (3:7), 6 :4.
“It’s not the case that I’m thinking: ‘Unbelievable’,” said Hanfmann: “We’re both good enough and can beat people in doubles. The fact that it’s working so well at a Grand Slam is of course cool.”
Loose words that don’t diminish the medium-sized sensation. After all, the Spanish-Argentinian pairing has already reached the final at Wimbledon in 2023 and 2021 as well as the final of the US Open in 2019. At the Australian Open in the last two years, it only ended in the semi-finals.
Two quarter-finals for Laura Siegemund
Already in the second round, Hanfmann and Koepfer, who were eliminated in the singles in the first round, surprisingly eliminated the Australian defending champions Rinky Hijikata and Jason Kubler.
The German women are also represented in the quarterfinals of the doubles competition Down Under. Doubles specialist Laura Siegemund, alongside her new Czech partner Barbora Krejcikova, clearly won 6:4 and 6:0 against the American Emma Navarro and the Russian Diana Shnaider.
Shortly afterwards, Siegemund even booked her second quarter-final ticket at the Australian Open 2024. In the mixed doubles, she and her Belgian partner Sander Gille defeated Ena Shibahara from Japan and Joran Veilen from Belgium 6:4 and 6:4.
By the way, there has never been a German title holder in one of the doubles competitions in Melbourne.