Perhaps Kevin Krawietz and Tim Pütz would have turned things around if they had managed to score this one point. Krawietz had a great chance to win two set points. He and Pütz were leading 6:5 and 30:15 in the second set of the doubles final of this US Open. Australian Max Purcell’s volley was not optimal, Krawietz rushed forward and had the point practically on his racket. But he pushed the ball into the net with a two-handed backhand. 30:30 instead of 40:15.
Tennis is a sport in which individual moments can decide between winners and losers. Krawietz and Pütz had to accept the equaliser at 6:6, shortly afterwards Purcell and his compatriot Jordan Thompson celebrated, winning 6:4, 7:6 (4). In Wimbledon, the two had missed three match points in the final – doubles matches are always that close.
For Krawietz and Pütz, reaching the final was of course still a nice success, and a lucrative one at that. They share 375,000 dollars. In the second year of their collaboration, they made it to the final of a Grand Slam event for the first time. For Krawietz, 32, from Coburg, it was the third time he had appeared in a doubles final; in 2019 and 2020 he had triumphed at the French Open with Andreas Mies from Cologne. The pair’s first success in Paris six years ago was the first German doubles success since 1937. Pütz, 36, who was born in Frankfurt, was now in his first doubles final; in 2023 he had won the mixed doubles competition at the French Open with the Japanese Miyo Kato. The best result of Krawietz and Pütz together so far was reaching the Wimbledon semifinals in 2023.
“We enjoyed playing at Arthur Ashe for the first time,” said Krawietz at the award ceremony. “It was a great atmosphere,” said Pütz. The two will be heading straight to China. The group phase of the group into which the German Davis Cup team was drawn will take place in Zhuhai. On Tuesday, the selection of national coach and Davis Cup captain Michael Kohlmann will face Slovakia. After the cancellations of Alexander Zverev, Jan-Lennard Struff, Dominik Koepfer and Daniel Altmaier, Yannick Hanfmann, 32, and Maximilian Marterer, 29, will play the singles matches. The other opponents are the USA and Chile.