The interest in South Africa’s Davis Cup team has waned in recent years, and it’s hard to blame people outside hardcore tennis fans for not caring.
The national side have floated around in the lower tiers of the international men’s team competition for so long, it has seemed like the possibility of them making any real progress has been little more than a pipe dream.
One of the problems is that the country’s top players have been reluctant to make themselves available, and we can’t really blame.
Kevin Anderson, who reached two Grand Slam finals in his career before announcing his retirement, said he needed to focus on his progress on the ATP Tour. And now Lloyd Harris is in the same boat.
However, Harris (who is clawing his way up the ATP list again after struggling with injuries) has apparently told national captain Pietie Norval that he might play for the national team if they are able to lift themselves up from the World Group II division.
Harris is a former Grand Slam quarter-finalist, and though he has had injury troubles in recent years, he is South Africa’s top player.
If he represents the Davis Cup side, they will be given a significant boost, and the potential of rising to the top-tier World Group might become a reality.
Digging deep and fighting back
And last week, the players currently representing the country showed the sort of fight they will need if they are going to give Harris a reason to join them in SA colours.
While they were expected to sweep aside lower-ranked Montenegro in their World Group II play-off in Centurion, the national team were stunned by a group of relatively unknown players who are all competing on the US collegiate circuit.
On day two of the tie, South Africa were 2-1 down heading into the reverse singles matches, and Philip Henning managed to draw things level with a convincing straight-sets win over Montenegro’s No 1 player Petar Jovanovic.
With the tie coming down to the last rubber, Alec Beckley then found himself in a hole, 5-2 down in the first set against Aleksa Krivokapic.
Beckley was incredible. Digging deep in front of a lively home crowd at Irene Country Club, he showed tremendous resilience to fight his way back into the match to earn a 7-6 6-3 victory.
It was the sort of performance the SA team needed to not only stay in World Group II, but to indicate that they have the ability to climb to second-tier Group I.
And if they can win their next two ties, and Harris then makes himself available, Norval will have the squad he needs to guide them to the highest level in the ‘World Cup of Tennis’.
Sports fans are not going to show much interest in the national Davis Cup side until they prove themselves worthy, but their latest performance suggests they are on the right track.
If they can take one more step up, it could change everything for them. And it will do wonders in promoting South African tennis.
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