Ondruska upbeat about SA’s Davis Cup chances
THEY MAY be competing away from home but South Africa’s non-playing captain Marcos Ondruska is bullish about his charges’ chances of gaining promotion to the next tier of the Davis Cup.
Ondruska stuck with continuity when he named his team for the crucial Davis Cup tie against Denmark next month which could see them promoted to the Euro-Africa Group I.
“The surface is right, the time is right for the team, they have grown together and I’ve seen some of the results of the team over there,” Ondruska said.
“I know exactly what we will be up against, we can make some good plans and try our best to work with what we have against them.
“For the most part we are looking pretty good over here, I’m not counting my chickens before they are hatched but I am confident.”
Ondruska named an unchanged team for the third consecutive tie with Lloyd Harris, Nik Scholtz, Raven Klaasen, and Ruan Roelofse set to do duty from September 15 to 17 at the indoor Ceres Arena in Aarhus.
Harris and Scholtz will spearhead South Africa’s charge in the single rubbers with Klaasen and Roelofse playing in the doubles.
Harris reached the quarterfinals of the Challenger in Vancouver, Canada the past week proving his fighting form while he also reached the semifinals of four Futures events this year.
“He’s (Harris) fighting fit, so I think he’ll be playing with some good form,” Ondruska said.
“The guys have been together now for a long time and they are starting to build that camaraderie that for the major part of the Davis Cup.”
Scholtz recently won two Futures titles in Zimbabwe and reaching the Futures finals in Mexico.
Ondruska said the players were well aware of the importance of the tie but they would merely focus on taking it one challenge at a time.
“These guys just need to keep it simple out there and from start to finish go do their best and win one point at a time,” he said.
“Our guys are good, probably better than they are ranked at this stage, but what has worked in our favour is that our guys are relatively unknown.”
Ondruska was confident about his chances with the indoors hardcourt surface playing into his players’ hands.
“The reason why they went for that was more to suit their own team than it has anything to do with our team, but it actually suits us very well,” Ondruska said.
“Our team has limited experience on clay, so we are extremely happy they didn’t pick clay or any of those sort of surfaces.
“Our team is going to be very difficult to beat indoors on a hard court because of how well we serve on it. We will be holding serve a lot of the time which bodes really well for us.”
Meanwhile, Ondruska named former South African great Jeff Coetzee as consultant coach for the tie while Tucker Vorster will be travelling as practice partner.
KIA SA team and their current ranking positions: Lloyd Harris (231 singles, 644 doubles); Nik Scholtz (402 singles, 505 doubles); Raven Klaasen (15 doubles), Ruan Roelofse (142 doubles)