The target remains Madrid!
The Davis Cup is the most traditional trophy in men’s tennis. This season, the race for the world’s ugliest salad bowl presents itself in a completely new guise for the second time. 18 teams have qualified for the final tournament, which will be held at several locations. The preliminary round has been completed and the quarter-finals are on the agenda from Monday onwards.
The German team is still in the mix and will face the representatives from Great Britain in Innsbruck on Tuesday. The British are one of the few teams that have almost their best line-up. The best bookmakers therefore consider the team of team manager Leon Smith to be favourites against the German team.
The declared goal of the German quintet was the trip to Madrid. As group runners-up, they would have played in the last eight in the Spanish capital. But because the German team surprisingly won the group, a victory against the British team was needed to travel to Madrid for the semi-finals. Before the first serve between Great Britain and Germany, however, the forecast is more towards a British success.
Two singles and one doubles match will be played. It was mainly the doubles that brought Germany victory in the preliminary round against Serbia and Austria. However, the British have a world-class duo there, so we agree with the betting providers and tend to bet on a victory for the islanders between Great Britain and Germany.
Great Britain – Statistics & current form
Andy Murray would certainly still have been very much on the cards for the British, but the former Scotland number one is not part of the British team in this new Davis Cup. However, with Cameron Norrie, the world number twelve and recently a substitute at the ATP Finals in Turin, Great Britain at least has a top player at the start.
Norrie with two wins in the preliminary round
The second singles will probably be played by Dan Evans again against Germany. The right-hander from Birmingham is ranked number 25 in the world. This puts both Britons ahead of their two German rivals in the ATP rankings. Cameron Norrie won his best matches in the preliminary round against Arthur Rinderknech and Jiri Lehecka.
Dan Evans managed a win against Adrian Mannarino before losing out to Czech Tomas Machac. Neither of the two top British players should be absent, because Liam Brady, 125th in the world rankings, is not an adequate replacement. But the British have an extremely strong doubles team at the start.
Joe Salisbury and Neal Skupski are both proven specialists in doubles, but they lost to the French duo in the preliminary round. Nevertheless, this duet seems hardly beatable by the German doubles and that is also why we primarily check the odds on a win for the British between Great Britain and Germany.
Britain line-up:
Cameron Norrie (12), Dan Evans (25), Liam Broady (128), Joe Salisbury (double 3), Neal Skupski (double 20) – Team manager: Leon Smith
Germany – Statistics & current form
Who knows what would have been possible with Alexander Zverev at the David Cup Finals. But the Olympic champion and newly crowned world champion is not available. But the Davis Cup in particular has often shown that a lot is possible in the individual sport of tennis with team spirit. The cohesion in the German team is extremely strong, as the tennis group showed at the Olympics in Tokyo.
Doubles as a guarantee for success
With Jan-Lennard Struff and Dominik Köpfer, the two singles players from the preliminary round should be back on court in the quarter-finals on Tuesday. Both have a 1:1 record in the group phase. Struff lost his first match against Novak Djokovic, but won against Austrian Dennis Novak on Sunday.
For Dominik Köpfer it was the other way round. In the first duel he defeated Filip Krajinovic from Serbia before surprisingly losing out to Yuri Rodionov. Both face tough tasks against the British and at least one of them has to win the singles to have any chance of reaching the semifinals.
The guarantor for the victories against Serbia and Austria was the doubles team of Kevin Krawietz and Tim Pütz. They also played side by side at the Olympic Games in Tokyo, where they lost to the British Andy Murray and Joe Salisbury, of all people. This probably means that in the duel between Great Britain and Germany, the prediction will once again go in the direction of the United Kingdom.
Predicted line-up of Germany:
Jan-Lennard Struff (51), Dominik Köpfer (54), Peter Gojowczyk (85), Kevin Krawietz (doubles 14), Tim Pütz (doubles 18) – Team manager: Michael Kohlmann
Great Britain – Germany Direct Comparison / H2H-Balance
Under the current circumstances, it is the second time that Great Britain and Germany have met in the Davis Cup. However, there have been a total of ten duels to date. In direct comparison, the score is an even 5:5. However, most of the encounters took place an extremely long time ago. This shows how rich in tradition this competition is.
In 2019, the Davis Cup was already played in the current format. At that time, Great Britain and Germany also met in the quarter-finals, but at that time already in Madrid. After wins by Kyle Edmund against Philipp Kohlschreiber and Daniel Evans against Jan-Lennard Struff, the British led 2-0. The subsequent doubles match was not played due to irrelevance.
Great Britain – Germany Tip
With Cameron Norrie, they have a player who won both matches in the preliminary round and most recently, as a reward for a great year, competed in the ATP Finals. He should be a safe bet for Great Britain’s first point.
Depending on who plays whom, Dominik Köpfer or Jan-Lennard Struff will have to win against Dan Evans. However, the Englishman is clearly ahead of both Germans in the ATP ranking. The Briton is also favoured in this match and so it already sums up that a tip on a British victory should be advisable in the match between Great Britain and Germany.
The Germans are also considered outsiders in the doubles, even though Kevin Krawietz and Tim Pütz won both duels in the preliminary round. Joe Salisbury and Neal Skupski could be a bit too big. Therefore, we have decided to play the betting odds on a British success between Great Britain and Germany. If there are timely quotes on a 3-0 win, we would check those too.
