Israelis end SA’s promotion hopes
DAVIS CUP TIE: VISITORS WIN THE DECIDING SINGLES
Ondruska’s men now have to fight to retain Group 1 status.
Admitting they were gutted by the defeat, captain Marcos Ondruska said the national men’s tennis team would have to find a way to regroup after their Davis Cup World Group promotion hopes were dashed in a hard-fought clash against Israel at the weekend.
Having entered a tense second and final day level at 1-1 in Centurion on Saturday morning, the South Africans took the lead in their Euro-Africa Group 1 tie, with Raven Klaasen and Ruan Roelofse fighting back from a set down to beat Jonathan Erlich and Dudi Sela in the doubles rubber.
In the first of the return singles fixtures, Israel pulled a point back to draw level again at 2-2, with Sela sweeping 20-year-old Lloyd Harris aside.
In the deciding match, Nik Scholtz went down to a straightsets defeat to Edan Leshem as the visitors clinched a 3-2 win.
“The team and myself are extremely disappointed with how things finished up,” Ondruska said.
“We had a great start to the tie ... but unfortunately it came short with the last two singles matches.”
The tourists had been a little intimidated ahead of the tie, according to Israel captain Harel Levy, and they were relieved to pull through, keeping their promotion hopes alive.
“We were a little bit worried. We knew the South African players liked the conditions with the altitude, and we knew they had big serves and an excellent doubles team, but we tried to concentrate on our side and prepare our players the best way possible,” Levy said.
“The match was very close. It could have gone either way.”
The SA team will compete against either Sweden, Ukraine or Portugal in relegation play-offs in September in an attempt to retain their Group 1 status.
“We have to figure things out a bit, and then move towards doing better and coming through our next match,” Ondruska said.