Tennis pro Henri Squire missed a successful Davis Cup debut after missing three match points. The 23-year-old lost a thrilling match in Zhuhai against the American Reilly Opelka 7:6 (7:4), 6:7 (9:11), 3:6. This means that the heavily weakened German selection is 0:1 behind in the duel for group victory and must win the two remaining matches.
Given the 3-0 wins against Slovakia and Chile and the certain qualification for the Davis Cup finals, substitute Squire got his chance. The world number 187 initially kept his cool for a long time against the former top 20 player and 2.11 meter tall serve specialist and showed a strong performance in the deuce. A point in the first tiebreak on the American’s serve secured him the first set win.
In the tiebreak of the second set, Squire had three match points, one of them on his own serve. But at that very moment he made a double fault – just as he did a little later on the second set point against himself. The Duisburg player had no chance on the two match points on Opelka’s serve. Squire’s only loss of serve to make it 1:3 in the deciding set then led to the decision in favor of the American.
Somewhat surprisingly, team manager Michael Kohlmann decided not to field Yannick Hanfmann in the duel for group victory. Maximilian Marterer will play the other singles match. US Open finalists Kevin Krawietz and Tim Pütz will compete in the doubles.
With a win against the USA, the German team would be one of four teams at the finals in Malaga from November 19 to 24 and would first meet a group runner-up in the quarterfinals. As second in the group, the selection would get a group winner as its first knockout round opponent.
© dpa-infocom, dpa:240914-930-232254/1
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