With a strong group of players at his disposal, captain Pietie Norval admitted it was difficult to pick a final team from the five-man Renault South Africa squad to face Montenegro in the Davis Cup World Group II playoff at Irene Country Club in Centurion this weekend.

At the draw held on Friday, it was confirmed that South Africa’s number one player Philip Henning would face Montenegro’s number two Aleksa Krivokapic in the opening singles rubber on Saturday. Alec Beckley, the host nation’s number two, was then set to meet Montenegro number one Petar Jovanovic in the second singles rubber.

In the doubles rubber on Sunday, it was revealed that Thando Longwe-Smit and Kris van Wyk would square off against Krivokapic and Jovanovic ahead of the reverse singles rubbers.

While top-ranked Henning had been expected to earn the number one spot in the SA team, Norval said it was not an easy decision to pick the number two singles player. Nor was it a simple choice to decide who would join Longwe-Smit in the doubles contest. However, though Norval could still make changes to the doubles pairing ahead of Sunday’s match.

“Everybody is playing well and it was actually tough to make a selection for that number two (singles) spot. I ended up choosing Alec just for the fact that he’s played a lot of matches recently. Thando is almost like a leading doubles player for me, and then I had to decide who plays with him, but Chris (van Wyk) got some good results in doubles last year. He struggled with injury quite a bit but he’s back and healthy now,” Norval explained.

Henning, who missed the Renault South Africa team’s previous tie against Morocco, said he was pleased to be leading the national side again and he hoped to get them off to a good start in the opening match.

Though he admitted he was under a bit of pressure as the SA number one, Henning said he was up for the challenge and he looked forward to competing in front of a sold-out crowd at Irene Country Club on Saturday.

“There’s always expectation and a little bit of pressure in any match you play during a Davis Cup tie, but it’s these moments you train for, and these moments you want. Growing up, it’s these moments you look forward to, so I’m going to take it up. I’m ready for the challenge,” Henning remarked.

The 25-year-old Henning, who is 317th in the ATP rankings, emphasized that he is just trying to focus on his game, treat it as another tennis match, and try stay locked in to the match, not focusing too much on what’s going on around him. And he said that he is looking forward to the vibe and the atmosphere at Irene Country Club.

Montenegro captain Rrezart Cungu felt his side had adjusted well to the conditions ahead of the tie, as the visitors looked to pull off a surprise win against the higher-ranked home team.

“We’ve had a nice few days preparing here and we can’t wait to get started. We have quite a young team with a lot of potential for the future. All our players are still in college (in the United States) but they are motivated and they’ve done well in training this week. I think it’s going to be a good battle over the next two days,” Cungu said.

Play will start at 11am on Saturday, 7 February and at 10am on Sunday, 8 February.

Do you have more information about the story?

Please send us an email to bennittb@rekord.co.za or phone us on 083 625 4114.

For free breaking and community news, visit Rekord’s websites: Rekord East

For more news and interesting articles, like Rekord on Facebook, follow us on Twitter or Instagram