maroc - afrique du sud en coupe Davis 4 -1

[sympathy]

SA thrashed by Morocco

Posted on 25 September 2005 - 19:57

South Africa will drop to Group Two of the Euro/Africa Davis Cup zone after losing 4-1 to Morocco in Khemisset at the weekend.
With neither Hicham Arazi nor Younes El Aynaoui available to play for Morocco, it became a strongly winnable tie for new SA captain John-Laffnie de Jager.

But all went wrong from the opening day when SA number two Justin Bower, after coming back from two sets down against Mounir El Aarej, served for the match at 6-5 in the fifth set.

However, he lost his serve and the next two games to lose the match 4-6 4-6 6-3 6-4 6-8.

SA number one Rik de Voest was level at two-sets apiece when they had to go off due to bad light. But when the game resumed on Saturday, De Voest only managed to win two more games.

Jeff Coetzee and Chris Haggard managed to keep the tie alive for the South Africans when they captured the doubles rubber. But even the former Australian Open semifinalists had to pull out all stops before beating Mehdi Ziadi and Talal Ouahabi 7-6 (7-4) 6-7 (2-7) 4-6 6-3 7-5.

But that was the end of the road for the SA team. Both reverse singles matches had to be won to keep SA in Group One next year but De Voest went down to El Aarej 6-3 6-4 7-5, which gave the home side the victory.

In the dead fifth rubber Tahiri beat Bower 7-5 7-6 (7-2) to complete a 4-1 win.

Although the tie was played on slow clay courts which do not usually suit South Africans, it was a disappointing outcome.

It now means that next year South Africa will join the likes of Greece, Poland, Georgia, Norway, Bulgaria and Algeria in the lower group in 2006.

© Sapa - AFP