Thank goodness for the skill and excellent tennis of Philip Henning, as well as the courage and perseverance of Alec Beckley, because without them South Africa would – for the first time ever – have suffered the humiliation of being relegated to the regional leagues of Group III in the international Davis Cup competition.

The team from Montenegro, a small state from the Balkan region in South-Eastern Europe, arrived in South Africa last week with a well-hidden plan to surprise the South Africans in their World Group II playoff tie, which was hosted at the Irene Country Club in Centurion.

South African captain Pietie Norval’s team had to dig deep in this crucial playoff tie to ultimately beat their determined opponents 3-2 and thus retain their status in World Group II. With a Davis Cup ranking of 85, Montenegro is considerably lower on the ranking list than South Africa’s 60th place.

It was Henning in particular who made a huge contribution upon his return to Davis Cup tennis, after he was unavailable during the team’s defeat against Morocco in a World Group II tie in September last year.

Henning, who was ranked as South Africa’s number one player, won both of his singles rubbers quite easily in straight sets by first beating Montenegro’s number two player, Aleksa Krivokapic (6-4; 6-2) on day one and then dealing with their top seed, Petar Jovanovic, on Sunday. The score was 6-3; 6-2.

Beckley was surprised by Jovanovic on the first day and although he fought hard, he had to bow the knee in three sets with 2-6; 6-3; 3-6.

With the South Africans under pressure, Norval decided to field Henning alongside Thando Longwe-Smit for the doubles rubber on Sunday morning, after initially announcing that Kris van Wyk and Longwe-Smit would combine for the duel.

However, Jovanovic and Krivokapic were thoroughly prepared and they combined very well to win this important rubber 6-2; 7-6.

Enormous pressure therefore rested on the shoulders of Henning and Beckley, as they both had to win the reverse singles rubbers on Sunday afternoon to clinch the tie.

After Henning had dealt with Jovanovic quite easily, it was Beckley’s turn to save his country’s honour. He did this spectacularly with a determined performance, during which he had to dig very deep in the first set to erase a 2-5 deficit and eventually win by 7-6 with the help of a tiebreak game.

With this fightback effort, Beckley quenched the spirit of his opponent from Montenegro and he won the second set 6-3 to not only clinch the rubber, but also win the tie for South Africa.

Norval admitted afterwards that he was very worried at one point, especially after the doubles rubber, and that the men from Montenegro’s game plan almost outplayed them. All of their players currently still play college tennis in America and only Jovanovic is officially ranked on the ATP rankings. This made them a total unknown factor.

“It’s always difficult when you have to play against unknown young opponents, because you don’t know how good they really are. They are still unranked, but could be stars of the future and are capable of quality tennis,” Norval explained.

According to Norval, his plans are in place to perform better in World Group II later this year and thus continue his team’s push for eventual promotion back to World Group I.

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