Nigerians find SA Davis Cup team ‘intimidating’, even without star Lloyd Harris
With the injured player set to return only in the near future, Philip Henning is highest-ranked among hosts
30 January 2025 - 18:49
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SA Davis Cup captain Pietie Norval addresses a press conference in Pretoria on Thursday. Picture: GALLO IMAGES/REG CALDECOTT
Even without Lloyd Harris in the mix, the Nigerians find the SA men’s tennis team “intimidating” ahead of their Davis Cup tie at Groenkloof in Pretoria starting on Saturday.
With Harris set to return from a lengthy injury only in the near future, Philip Henning will be the hosts’ highest-ranked player at 326.
“I’m very glad Lloyd is not playing,” Nigerian captain Benson Ishicheli told a press conference on Thursday. “If Lloyd had been here it would have been a walk-over …
“To be honest with you it’s intimidating. Two top-300 [players] in the world, man, we are going to give it our best.”
SA captain Pietie Norval was cautiously optimistic but warned that unknown outfits could be dangerous.
“They [the Nigerians] don’t tend to play internationally as much as some of the other players. But we’ve learnt in the past that can be dangerous,” he said.
“So that leaves us where we can only really focus on what we do and how we prepare. I’m going to trust that the guys, if they can deliver on Saturday and Sunday and they can play close to their best level, it should be good enough.”
Norval had been working with the players since Monday, getting them used to altitude.
“The big difference is the rallies are normally shorter when they come up to altitude, which means that the aggressive part of each player’s game needs to be sharper because it’s way easier to make mistakes in altitude compared with … coastal regions.”
He explained that the ball came off the racket a lot faster.
“That means we really have to focus on serving and returning — when you hit the ball and it comes off your racket, it flies, it feels like you can’t keep the ball down so every shot you play in tennis, if you come up to altitude and your body lifts up slightly too quickly, you’ll miss everything out the back because it’s just flying off your racket.
“That flying off the racket, it takes a couple of days to adjust to that hit, if not a week.”
The Nigerians arrived in the country only on Wednesday, a factor that might count against them.
Norval said the team was happy with the hard court at Groenkloof.
“The court was brand new when we stepped on it on Monday and the guys were so happy about the court and what Tennis SA had done in preparing it.
“We felt it was a great court, exactly what we would like,” he said, adding it offered a kick off the serve.
The winner of the tie will play in a promotion/relegation match later in 2025, while the loser will be automatically demoted.
Support our award-winning journalism. The Premium package (digital only) is R30 for the first month and thereafter you pay R129 p/m now ad-free for all subscribers.
Nigerians find SA Davis Cup team ‘intimidating’, even without star Lloyd Harris
With the injured player set to return only in the near future, Philip Henning is highest-ranked among hosts
Even without Lloyd Harris in the mix, the Nigerians find the SA men’s tennis team “intimidating” ahead of their Davis Cup tie at Groenkloof in Pretoria starting on Saturday.
With Harris set to return from a lengthy injury only in the near future, Philip Henning will be the hosts’ highest-ranked player at 326.
“I’m very glad Lloyd is not playing,” Nigerian captain Benson Ishicheli told a press conference on Thursday. “If Lloyd had been here it would have been a walk-over …
“To be honest with you it’s intimidating. Two top-300 [players] in the world, man, we are going to give it our best.”
SA captain Pietie Norval was cautiously optimistic but warned that unknown outfits could be dangerous.
“They [the Nigerians] don’t tend to play internationally as much as some of the other players. But we’ve learnt in the past that can be dangerous,” he said.
“So that leaves us where we can only really focus on what we do and how we prepare. I’m going to trust that the guys, if they can deliver on Saturday and Sunday and they can play close to their best level, it should be good enough.”
Norval had been working with the players since Monday, getting them used to altitude.
“The big difference is the rallies are normally shorter when they come up to altitude, which means that the aggressive part of each player’s game needs to be sharper because it’s way easier to make mistakes in altitude compared with … coastal regions.”
He explained that the ball came off the racket a lot faster.
“That means we really have to focus on serving and returning — when you hit the ball and it comes off your racket, it flies, it feels like you can’t keep the ball down so every shot you play in tennis, if you come up to altitude and your body lifts up slightly too quickly, you’ll miss everything out the back because it’s just flying off your racket.
“That flying off the racket, it takes a couple of days to adjust to that hit, if not a week.”
The Nigerians arrived in the country only on Wednesday, a factor that might count against them.
Norval said the team was happy with the hard court at Groenkloof.
“The court was brand new when we stepped on it on Monday and the guys were so happy about the court and what Tennis SA had done in preparing it.
“We felt it was a great court, exactly what we would like,” he said, adding it offered a kick off the serve.
The winner of the tie will play in a promotion/relegation match later in 2025, while the loser will be automatically demoted.
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