Rik de Voest is only flying into South Africa on Tuesday but his late arrival is good news for captain Kevin Curren.
De Voest won his first challenger at the weekend in Cherbourg, France, beating off some useful players along the way.
He will join Wayne Ferreira, Wesley Moodie and Jeff Coetzee for this weekend’s Euro/Africa zone group-one Davis Cup tie against Germany, to be played at the Standard Bank Arena.
Also in form last week was Coetzee, who reached the doubles semifinal in Scottsdale with Croatian Mario Ancic before losing to top seeds Bob and Mike Bryan.
The German team had a couple of good workouts at the indoor arena on Monday with world number 15 Tommy Haas, Nicolas Kiefer, Rainer Schuettler and Alexander Waske all looking in fine fettle.
The unseeded De Voest defeated sixth seed Nicholas Mahut of France 7-5 6-2 in the final to claim the Cherbourg title.
”It’s great that Rik is in such good form and hopefully it will give him a lot of confidence for this tie,” said Curren.
It is no secret that Curren was keen to play this tie on grass in Cape Town and hoped for blustery and windy conditions.
”Even German coach Patrik Kuhnen said he was surprised by our choice of surface,” said Curren. ”He said that had we played the tie in Germany, he would have chosen a hard-court indoors.”
Whatever the surface, South Africa will need all the help they can get, and the advantage of a home tie is the vociferous support of the home fans.
”[The] Davis Cup is always special because it gives the fans the opportunity to really cheer for their team,” said tournament director Keith Brebnor.
”We know we are the underdogs this weekend and that’s why we are appealing to all tennis fans to come out in force and give the team all the support possible.” — Sapa
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