Despite entering the second day of the tie 2-0 down, the Renault South Africa Davis Cup team are ready to put up a fight on Sunday in their World Group II tie against Bosnia and Herzegovina at Irene Country Club in Centurion.
On the opening day of the clash on Saturday, both of South Africa’s singles players were in contention throughout their matches, but they were ultimately handed straight-sets defeats.
In the first fixture, SA No 1 Philip Henning lost to Bosnia and Herzegovina No 2 Andrej Nedic who earned a 6-4 6-4 victory, and in the second rubber, SA No 2 Kholo Montsi was edged by Bosnia’s top-ranked player Damir Dzumhur who secured a 6-4 7-5 win.
Henning admitted he had slipped a bit in the first set when he lost some games after being on game point, giving his opponent the momentum, which Nedic used to his advantage.
However, the SA team’s most experienced Davis Cup player believed the hosts could claw their way back on day two.
“There’s a big job ahead, but we’re ready. We’ll regroup tonight and come up with our best strategy for tomorrow,” Henning said.
“A lot of things can happen in the sport of tennis, and it’s not impossible. Sometimes being on the back foot gives you a bit of extra fire, and I think that’s what we’re going to use tomorrow, play freely and play to win.
“I trust and believe in every single one of the boys in the team to do their job and I’m looking forward to tomorrow.”
Montsi, who interacted with the sold-out crowd throughout the match on his Davis Cup debut, said he had fed off the spectators.
Fighting back from 5-3 down in the second set, Motsi drew level at 5-5 before Dzumhur recovered to wrap up the match.
“I fed off [the support] a lot, from our captain and the guys on the side, and from my fellow South Africans,” Montsi said.
“It really helped give me a big energy boost, and I am someone who loves the crowd, and it really helps me. It’s a good feeling knowing I can put smiles on people’s faces and they do the same for me, putting a smile on my face as well, which really helps.”
Renault South Africa team captain Pietie Norval said they would need to sit down as a squad and determine the way forward, with some difficult decisions to make ahead of the second day of the tie.
While Alec Beckley and Thando Longwe-Smit had been announced as the doubles pairing to play on Sunday, Norval could still make changes to the duo ahead of the match.
Needing to win the doubles rubber to stay in the hunt ahead of the reverse singles, he said a group decision would need to be made about the best way forward.
“It is tough to lose both matches on day one, and we’ll have to go and regroup later tonight and we’ll have to get up early tomorrow morning and talk about our doubles strategy,” Norval said.
“We’ll wait and see what happens with the guys tonight, then we’ll have a discussion about how we’re going to structure our team for the (doubles) match because obviously if we want to stay alive in the tie we would need to get through that.”
The second day of action between South Africa and Bosnia and Herzegovina gets underway at 11am on Sunday morning.