OPINION: SA tennis team need to stop making excuses and start performing

Not that it has always been an easy task for them to compete at international level, due to the unavailability of some of the country’s top players, but the national tennis team needs to stop making excuses and start performing.

Led by non-playing captain Christo van Rensburg, the SA men’s squad were handed another crushing defeat at the weekend, and their latest loss was so embarrassing they might want to forget the tie ever happened.

In the last few years, South Africa have lost to Boznia and Herzegovina, Israel, Bulgaria and Luxembourg.

Their only Davis Cup victory since 2020 was achieved against a lowly-ranked Venezuela team.

The squad’s most recent defeat – a 4-1 loss to Luxembourg in a World Group II relegation playoff – was a little short of pathetic, and everyone involved should be hanging their heads in shame.

Something wrong

With a population of 645 000 people, South Africa should never lose against the tiny European nation of Luxembourg, which is known as much for its sporting prowess as Eskom is known for keeping our lights on. Due to our investment in sport and the sheer size of our population, we should beat them in everything from tiddlywinks to football.

So when we are handed a 4-1 thumping, there is something wrong, and alarm bells should be ringing at Tennis South Africa.

For many years, we had to deal with the unavailability of world-class player Kevin Anderson, and while he will no doubt return to the squad, Lloyd Harris is also currently missing from the national team while he makes a comeback from a long-term injury which sidelined him from competition for half of last year.

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Even without star singles players, however, the SA team should be able to hold its own against countries which are so insignficant in terms of international sport that they shouldn’t even be mentioned in the same breath.

Hopefully global prospect Harris will make a return to the side soon, and doubles specialist Raven Klaasen will stick around to continue making a valuable contribution, but the players who are available need to make a real effort.

If the national tennis team wants support from the public, they need to start performing. There is no more time for excuses.