The German television program Sportschau recently published a report summarizing the situation of German players on the ATP circuit. The question that arises is whether, after Alexander Zverev and Jan-Lennard Struff, there is someone more worthy of mention among the other players to keep the German flag high in tennis.
Alexander Zverev is indisputably the best German on the ATP Tour, if only because of his ranking. “It has been the hardest year of my life, I love tennis more than anything else in life,” is his summary of last season, something understandable if you take into account that Zverev had to take a forced break of about seven months due to multiple ligament tears. However, in the 2023 season he made a truly impressive comeback: he is currently ranked 7th in the ATP rankings, having returned to playing in the top 10 from 27th thanks to 55/27 wins, including two tournament wins. to the ATP Finals, earning $4.8 million in prize money in the process. In 2024, Zverev aims to defend his Olympic title and win at least one Grand Slam. He is “very motivated” and “does not set limits.”
German number two, “the fighter” Jan-Lennard Struff, has also made an impressive comeback this season after several foot problems prevented him from playing for long periods of time. For example, Struff missed playing at Wimbledon and the US Open. However, he managed to collect around 1.35 million in prize money with 20/17 wins and even reached his best ranking to date (21) in June 2023. Jan-Lennard Struff was named Newcomer of the Year by the teammates of his for this season.
“I learned a lot, I was able to play all year round and participate in almost all the big tournaments. I also beat two Top 10 professionals,” says Daniel Altmaier, 25, from Kempten, about his 2023 season. He beat Jannik Sinner in Roland Garros and Andrey Rublev in Hamburg and managed to rise from 94th in the rankings to 47th – his personal best ranking – with 14/23 wins on the ATP Tour and around $1 million in prize money.
In comparison, Oscar Otte had a down season, as his knee repeatedly caused him problems. He dropped from 76th place to 252nd place in the rankings, 6/14 wins only on the ATP Tour and an income of around 0.5 million dollars mean that he can only hope for a better 2024.
Dominik Koepfer went back and forth between the Challenger Tour and the ATP Tour, but managed to have a good season by his standards. From 200 to 77 in the ATP rankings, he 7/6 wins with about $375,000 in prize money, despite injury-related restrictions.
Yannick Hanfmann also achieved 51st place in the rankings – up from 128th at the start of the season – with 23/22 wins on the circuit and a good $950,000 in prize money, which can safely be described as a solid 2023 season.
2023-12-27 18:06:35
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