Kevin Anderson was respected by most – even the teammates he dropped

In 2010, given my first opportunity to travel overseas for work, I covered a Davis Cup tie between South Africa and Germany.

It was a big one for the SA team, who were aiming to qualify for the top-flight World Group for the first time in 12 years.

The tie, in Stuttgart, was awesome. I ate horrible black sausage, drank spectacular beer and got to know some of the players, along with captain John-Laffnie de Jager.

While I revelled in a brand new environment, however, the national team’s prospects on court were a little more bleak.

The players clearly enjoyed being in a team environment, but there was a hole in the squad and they had to admit it couldn’t be filled.

Though Kevin Anderson would later be criticised for making himself unavailable to the SA team, he had planned on competing in Stuttgart, only to be sidelined by a toe injury.

It was a devastating blow. Back then, Anderson was ranked just inside the top 80 in the world, and the squad had some real depth with the likes of fighter Rik de Voest and doubles specialist Wesley Moodie in their ranks.

But without Anderson, they never really stood a chance, and they were ultimately thumped by their German hosts.

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Even then – before he became a top-10 player and a Grand Slam finalist – Anderson was the country’s top player and he brought a whole new dynamic to the national squad.

But that was the last time he made himself available to the SA team, and he would be widely lambasted for his absence from future ties.

There was never any anymosity, however, within the squad, and though I was able to get De Jager and the rest of the team to open up to me during my stay in Germany, I never heard any of them criticising Anderson, even though he hadn’t played for the team for the previous two years.

The reality is that each of those players knew how hard it was to achieve what Anderson hoped to achieve on the ATP Tour, and though they might not have been delighted about it, it would be disrespectful to lash out at the only singles player who was able to represent the country at the highest level of international tennis.

On the few occasions I got to interview him, Anderson always made it clear he loved his home country and he was proud to represent us on the tour.

He could have switched allegiance to the United States, as he held dual citizenship, but he did not. He stuck with us and carried SA men’s tennis to heights it hadn’t reached in decades.

For that, we should be satisfied with his efforts and proud of what he achieved.

As I learned in Stuttgart, speaking to people who desperately wanted him in their team, he was always respected by his peers, and rightly so.

Anderson did drop our national squad – even he will admit that – but he never dropped our nation.