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Germany's Jan-Lennard Struff revealed he tried to convince Alexander Zverev to play the Davis Cup Finals but he didn't change his mind. Zverev, ranked at No. 3 in the world, made it clear that he didn't want to play the Davis Cup Finals because he doesn't consider the event under the new format as the real Davis Cup.
Germany made the semifinal without Zverev. "Yeah, I mean, of course I talked to him, definitely. Of course, I tried to convince him to play definitely. We don't need to talk about Sascha's level. He's a top player. He would help the team 100% always.
If he's in the team, we're a better team, better chances to win," Struff said of Zverev. "But he communicated it early enough that he's not going to play. It's one reason, as well, that I think he said enough for the reasons why he doesn't play.
As well, he said that the date in the year was very late. It's kind of a problem right now because the year's very long. I go to holidays one week now and have, like, 10 days to prepare for next season, which is not very long.
"It's tough with the date. It's a lot of events. The season is very long."
Struff asked to choose between the Davis Cup and ATP Cup
"That's a very tough one. Good question," Struff said. "For me both events are very nice. The Davis Cup has more history definitely, so I would maybe prefer to choose the Davis Cup.
But I liked a lot the event they put up in Australia to begin the year. "I'm a team player. I like to play in a team. I want to have -- in general, I would love to have more events like this with a team. "I don't want to choose between these two.
I just want to have more team events. That's my thing, yeah." Zverev didn't play the Davis Cup Finals but he is expected to play the ATP Cup.