The 17-year-old, Jahnie van Zyl, gave her all in an enthralling singles match against the current 38th ranked tennis player in the world, Maria Sakkari, but came up short.
Van Zyl, representing Team South Africa, lost 6-4, 6-1, after putting up a massive fight of the first set in a promotional playoff match against Greece in the Billie Jean King Cup Europe/Africa Group II match.
Van Zyl had a break on Sakkari’s serve in the second set, but could not break through. It was a massive effort for Van Zyl who hold a WTA ranking of 1110, more than a thousand spots behind the Greek.
South Africa faced a tough challenge on the clay court of Banja Luka in Bosnia against strong opposition from Greece. Van Zyl’s teammate, Isabella Kruger faced Despina Papamichail, going down 6–2, 6–3. This gave Greece an unassailable 2-0 lead and as such, the doubles rubber was not played.
Despite their efforts, South Africa fell 2–0 in the tie, meaning the team will remain in Europe/Africa Group II for the next campaign.
South Africa faced Morocco, Egypt, North-Macedonia and Bulgaria in previous group matches.
