A look at Germany's top tennis players on the ATP Tour ahead of 2024 season

The German TV show Sportschau recently ran a feature in which it summed up the German players on the ATP Tour. The question arises as to whether, after Alexander Zverev and Jan-Lennard Struff, there is anyone else worth mentioning among the other players to keep the German flag flying high in tennis.

Alexander Zverev is undisputedly the best German on the ATP Tour, if only because of his ATP ranking. "It was the hardest year of my life, I love tennis more than anything else in life." is his summary of the past 2022 season, which is understandable considering that Zverev had to take a forced break of around seven months due to multiple torn ligaments. However, he made a comeback in the 2023 season that is truly impressive: He is currently ranked 7th in the ATP rankings, having played his way back into the top 10 from 27th place through 55/27 wins including two tournament victories up to the ATP Finals, earning 4.8million dollars in prize money in the process. In 2024, Zverev is aiming to defend his Olympic title and win at least one Grand Slam. He is "very motivated" and is "not setting himself any limits."

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The German number two, "the fighter" Jan-Lennard Struff, also made an impressive comeback this season after various foot problems that prevented him from playing for long periods of time. For example, Struff missed out on playing at Wimbledon and the US Open. Nevertheless, he managed to collect around 1.35 million in prize money with 20/17 wins and even achieved his highest ranking to date (21) in June 2023. Jan-Lennard Struff was named Comeback Player of the Year by his peers for this season.

"I learned a lot, was able to play through the year and take part in almost all the big tournaments. I also beat two top 10 pros," said 25-year-old Daniel Altmaier from Kempten about his 2023 season. He beat Jannik Sinner at the French Open and Andrey Rublev in Hamburg and managed to work his way up from 94th in the rankings to 47th - his personal best ranking - with 14/23 wins on the ATP Tour and around 1 million dollars in prize money.

In comparison, Oscar Otte had a negative season, as his knee repeatedly caused him problems. He slipped from 76. He slipped back to 252nd place in the rankings, 6/14 wins only on the ATP Tour and earnings of around 0.5 million dollars mean he can only hope for a better 2024.

Dominik Koepfer shuttled back and forth between the Challenger Tour and the ATP Tour but managed to deliver a good season by his standards. From 200 to 77 in the ATP rankings, 7/6 wins with around 375,000 dollars in prize money, despite injury-related restrictions.

Yannick Hanfmann also achieved 51st place in the rankings - from 128th at the start of the season - with 23/22 wins on the tour and a good 950,000 dollars in prize money, which can confidently be described as a solid 2023 season.

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