Tennis: Quarter-final defeat - Krawietz and Pütz fail against the eventual tournament winner

The two German doubles specialists Kevin Krawietz and Tim Pütz missed out on a place in the semi-finals at the Tennis Masters in Monte Carlo on Friday, losing narrowly to the eventual tournament winners from Belgium.

In the round of the last eight, Krawietz and Pütz were beaten by the two Belgians Sander Gille and Joran Vliegen on the "Court Des Princes" in two sets, 5:7 and 4:6. The two Germans lost in a thrilling match after 1:25 hours.

The German Davis Cup doubles pair started very well in the first set, but then missed three set points at 5:4, allowing the Belgians to break 5:5 and then win the set 7:5. The second set was also evenly poised before Gille/Vliegen took the Germans' serve in the ninth game and finally used their third match point to win 6:4 on their own service.

After their semi-final victory over third seeds Marcel Granollers and Horacio Zeballos, Gille and Vliegen then also won the final against Alexander Zverev and Brazilian Marcelo Melo 5:7, 6:3 and 10:5.

Just three days after their defeat at the ATP Masters in Monaco, Kevin Krawietz and Tim Pütz are back on the clay court. Tomorrow, Tuesday, they will meet New Zealander Marcus Daniell and Austrian Philipp Oswald in the first round of the BMW Open in Munich.