Jan-Lennard Struff and Daniel Altmaier each won their matches as Germany defeated Canada 2-0 to reach the semifinals of the Davis Cup finals on Wednesday. This marks Germany’s first appearance in the semifinals since 2019, as they cruised past Canada with relative ease.
Altmaier bounced back from a shaky start to defeat Gabriel Diallo 7-6(5), 6-4 in straight sets. Struff then capped off the victory with a dramatic win over Denis Shapovalov, 4-6, 7-5, 7-6(5).
“Today, I think both players deserved to win,” Struff said. “But I’m happy to get it over the line at the end. Denis was playing amazingly, coming out firing, serving so well the whole match. It was tough to return. Even in the tiebreak, he hit some winners. It was very close.”
Germany’s win sets up a semifinal clash against the Netherlands, who eliminated Spain and ended Rafael Nadal’s career the previous night.
Struff expressed his excitement about facing the Dutch: “It will be amazing. It’s a big step for us to go from the quarters to the semis. We want to win and go to the finals now. The Netherlands played an amazing tie. We expect tough opposition. We know the Germans and the Dutch have a little rivalry, and the Dutch have amazing fans, so I’m looking forward to it.”
Shapovalov will likely regret missed opportunities in a match where he hit 27 aces and 24 winners but also committed 13 double faults, including one that gave Struff the match.
In the opening match, Altmaier overcame nerves to edge out Diallo. After squandering a 5-0 lead in the first-set tiebreak, Altmaier regrouped to win 7-5. He then held his nerve in the second set, coming from 15-40 down to break the Canadian at 5-4 and close out the match.
Altmaier also shared that the German team had watched Rafael Nadal’s final match the night before. “We watched the whole first set. We all had tears when we saw the images. I’ve been watching him since we were very young boys, so it’s just something super touching, super memorable,” he said.
