SA knocking but still no answer from Kevin Anderson

Captain Marcos Ondruska remains confident of roping in tennis ace Kevin Anderson, insisting he nearly hooked him into the national side for the upcoming Davis Cup tie against Denmark.

Anderson, unavailable to the Davis Cup team for the last six years, bounced back from multiple injuries this year, reaching the fourth round at Roland Garros and Wimbledon, and taking the runner-up spot at the Washington Open.

“We were knocking pretty hard on his door,” Ondruska said on Tuesday.

“I think he’s just been doing really well and he’s worried about his body, but it was a very close call with Kevin for this tie. I think part of him really wanted to play.”

In Anderson’s extended absence, Ondruska named an unchanged team – Lloyd Harris, Nic Scholtz, Raven Klaasen and Ruan Roelofse – for the Euro-Africa Group 2 third-round contest against Denmark, to be played on a hard court indoor surface in Aarhus next month.

The same quartet defeated Estonia 4-1 in Centurion in February and went on to beat Slovenia 5-0, again on home soil, in April.

“The guys have been together for a long time, and they’ve started to enjoy Davis Cup as a group, as a team,” Ondruska said.

They were set to go in search of a place in the Group 1 division next year, with a victory away from home, though a defeat to Denmark would leave the SA team flailing in Group 2 again next year.

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