Ondruska’s inside info is advantage for SA

SLOVENIA may be seeded higher than South Africa, but the hosts will have a slight advantage in their Euro-Africa Group II tie in Irene from April 7 to 9 thanks to non-playing captain Marcos Ondruska’s detailed knowledge of the visiting team’s top players.

Taking on the second-seeded Slovenia in Euro-Africa Group II, South Africa face an uphill battle in their pursuit of promotion to the next tier.

Slovenia boast two players ranked in the top 200 in the world – Blaz Kavcic (136th) and Grega Zemlja (145th).

“I know both guys from Slovenia really well, I used to coach Luca Gregorc who was the first Slovenian to break through into the top 200 and then these two guys followed in his footsteps,” Ondruska said.

The home team is unchanged from South Africa’s previous tie against Estonia at home in February, which they won comfortably 4-1.

The SA captain named Lloyd Harris, Nik Scholtz, Raven Klaasen, Ruan Roelofse and Tucker Vorster to do duty.

Harris, 20, is likely to spearhead South Africa’s charge while Klaasen will be South Africa’s ace in the doubles.

“We saw that Lloyd Harris played Blaz Kavcic in Kyoto and he lost to him in the semifinal (via a third-set tiebreaker)... so I think it is going to be very close,” Ondruska said.

“It is going to be unlike any tie we’ve had so far, (but) obviously we have the advantage playing at altitude.

“I hope that will help get us through; I am confident but I know these guys are not to be taken lightly.”

South Africa and Slovenia have met twice, with one victory apiece.

The winner of this tie faces the winner between Norway and Denmark for a chance of being promoted to Euro/Africa Group 1.

Ondruska said it was the “perfect” tie for South African given his knowledge of the opposition players and the fact that the tie would be on a hardcourt surface at altitude.

“I actually think this is the perfect sort of surface... it is high bouncing, it’s fast through the air.