OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Sunday 9.45pm.
SOUTH Africa’s 1998 Davis Cup record crashed to an embarrassing 10 played and ten lost after they were annihilated 5-0 by the Czech Republic in their World Group promotion/relegation tie on Sunday.
The South Africans were already 3-0 down in the best-of-five-sets tie when captain Danie Visser decided to change his line-up for the reverse singles on Sunday.
David Nainkin played in place of Wayne Ferreira and Pietie Norval took over for Marcos Ondruska, who was feeling under the weather. The results were disastrous with Bohdan Ulirach needing just 49 minutes to put out Nainkin 6-0 6-1.
Slava Dosedel took only seven minutes longer to beat Norval 6-1 6-1.
In the three days of play South Africa lost every set, and won just 24 games to the 78 of the Czechs.