Chanel, Madrie clinch Fed Cup win

THE SOUTH AFRICAN Fed Cup team gained promotion to the Europe/Africa Zone Group II after beating Malta 2-1 in their playoff tie on claycourt in Montenegro yesterday.

Chanel Simmonds (pictured) was the star for South Africa, winning her singles before featuring in the decisive doubles with birthday girl Madrie le Roux.

It was a superb start to Rene Plant’s tenure as Fed Cup captain. Her charges moved up from the bottom tier of the international women’s series.

The Fed Cup team beat Montenegro (2-1), Kenya (3-0), and Finland (2-1) on their way to the promotion tie in the Europe/Africa Zone Group III tournament.

Debutante Katie Poluta won her first two singles rubbers before going down in the last two against Finland and Malta. She lost the opening rubber of the playoff match against Malta’s Francesca Curmi 6-1 6-0 before SA’s top-ranked singles player Simmonds levelled the tie by beating Elaine Genovese 6-1 7-6 (1).

In the deciding match Simmonds and Le Roux thumped the Maltese combination of Curmi and Genovese 6-1 6-1.

It was former SA professional tennis player Rene Plant’s first tournament as non-playing captain of the Fed Cup team after Earl Grainger stepped down last year. Plant was delighted at the team’s promotion.

“Chanel dug deep and once again handled the pressure extremely well,” Plant said. “Madrie and Chanel then played an unbelievable two sets of doubles.”