GERMANY is on a mission to break a 31-year drought at the Davis Cup, and ticked off the first challenge with a victory over 2022 winners Canada overnight. The Germans last won a Davis Cup way back in 1993 during a golden era for the nation, winning three titles in a six-year span between 1988-1993. If they are to achieve the feat again, they will do so without world number two Alexander Zverev.

After a huge year for their top ranked singles player, Zverev opted to not take part in the Malaga event, which meant number two singles player Jan-Lennard Struff stepped up to the plate, closing out the tie with an impressive victory over Canada’s Denis Shapovalov.

The North American nation was also missing its best player with Felix Auger-Aliassime a late withdrawal from the tournament, handing veteran Milos Raonic a chance. He was not needed though with Shapovalov and Gabriel Diallo given the singles duties. Unfortunately for Canada, Diallo lost the first singles match to Daniel Altmaier, which meant when Struff beat Shapovalov, it was game over for Canada.

Both singles matches were close, with Altmaier winning his singles over Diallo 7-6 6-4, including a 7-5 first set tiebreaker, while the big-serving Struff had to come from a set down against world number 56 Shapovalov to win 4-6 7-5 7-6. The 7-5 deciding set tiebreaker ensured Germany would secure its place in the semi-finals.

In that deciding match, Shapovalov produced a ridiculous 27 aces to eight across the two-hour, seven-minute contest, also hitting seven more winners (24-17), 21 of which came off his forehand side. Incredibly despite showing off his remarkable power, Shapovalov only hit three more unforced errors (25-22). The Canadian also won seven more total points (111-104) but still lost the match.

The stats suggest it was unfathomable that Shapovalov lost, however Altmaier’s win over Diallo was more clear statistically. The German served one more ace (10-9), five less double faults (1-6), and only hit 17 unforced errors to 40, while being more consistent across both his first and second serves, winning 75 and 54 per cent of the points, compared to Diallo’s 63 and 46 per cent respectively.

Struff said he was happy with the victory given it could have gone with way.

“Today I think both players deserved to win,” he said post-match. “But I’m happy to get over the line at the end. Denis was amazing, coming out firing, he was serving so well the whole match. It was tough to return. Even in the tiebreak he hit some winners. It was very close.”

By grabbing the win, Germany advanced through to the Davis Cup semi-finals against Netherlands and are on the easier side of the draw, with three of the top four nations – Italy, Australia and the USA – all on the other side. It means the challenge will get significantly harder in the final for the winner.