Two years ago, tennis pros Kevin Krawietz, 32, and Tim Pütz, 36, decided to play doubles together from now on, and the hopes of the Coburg and Frankfurt natives were high. Krawietz had already won the French Open twice with his previous partner Andreas Mies from Cologne. Pütz had demonstrated his skills above all with great performances in the Davis Cup, and last year he won the mixed doubles at the French Open in Paris with the Japanese Miyu Kato. But they have not achieved their goal of winning a Grand Slam title together – not yet. This Saturday, Krawietz and Pütz will be in the final of the US Open (6 p.m. CET).
In the semifinals on Thursday evening, the German duo won 6:3, 6:7 (9), 6:4 against Marcelo Arévalo from El Salvador and Mate Pavic from Croatia. “It was definitely a bit of a rollercoaster,” said Krawietz, who was naturally beaming. “We’ve been doing really well mentally so far, throughout the whole tournament,” said Pütz, “the final is the reward for that.” In the match for the big trophy, they will face the Australians Max Purcell and Jordan Thompson, the winners will receive a total of 750,000 dollars, and 375,000 dollars will go to the finalists.
For Krawietz, it is the third time he has reached the final of a Grand Slam tournament. In 2019, he and Mies surprised everyone as an unseeded duo and won the title; it was a historic success, as it was the first German doubles success since 1937. In 2020, the two were able to defend their title and won again. For Pütz, it is the first Grand Slam doubles final. The best result of Krawietz and Pütz together was reaching the Wimbledon semifinals in 2023.
Because of their participation in the final, Krawietz and Pütz cannot fly to Zhuhai until Sunday; the Davis Cup group phase is taking place in China. The German team will play against Slovakia on Tuesday (without Alexander Zverev and Jan-Lennard Struff, with Jannik Hanfmann and Maximilian Marterer). Other opponents are the USA and Chile.