Jeff Coetzee and Wesley Moodie kept the Euro/Africa Zone, Group One Davis Cup tie alive on Saturday when they won the doubles rubber at the Standard Bank Arena.
The SA duo downed Nicolas Kiefer and Rainer Schuettler 6-3 7-4 (7-4) 7-5 in an encounter that lasted two hours and 10 minutes.
With the home team having lost both the singles matches on Friday night, South Africa go into Sunday’s reverse singles 1-2 down in the best-of-five-match encounter.
”At breakfast this morning Wesley said I had to do him a favour and win today because he wanted to play a live tie on Sunday,” said Coetzee.
Sitting in the stadium on Saturday was former Nocsa president Sam Ramsamy, who should perhaps have felt a little remorse over not having sent an SA doubles team to the Olympics. Although there was space for them in the draw, Nocsa claimed the SA team did not have the correct criteria to represent the country.
On Saturday, while Ramsamy watched, Coetzee and Moodie comfortably put away the Olympic silver medallists, who took the eventual champions, Chile, to five sets in Athens.
The SA pair were always in control and broke the Germans in the sixth game of the first set and then served it out.
The second set went to a tie-breaker but the SA pair went ahead 4-2 and went on to close it out 7-4.
When the broke early in the third set the match looked a formality, but the Germans broke Kotex’s serve to level at 4-4. With Schuettler serving at 4-5, the SA team reached their first match point but Moodie missed an overhead.
It was Schuettler again who came under pressure at 5-6 when he found himself at 0-40, giving the South Africans three more match point opportunities.
Schuettler saved the first with a backhand winner down the line and the second went abegging when Moodie sprayed his backhand wide.
But when Coetzee got the next opportunity he floated the return wide to the Kiefer forehand and the German dropped the ball in the net.
”I made up my mind I was going to play the return down the line. Kiefer is not that good a volleyer and if he did make the volley, I would have a second shot at it anyhow.”
SA captain Kevin Curren said it was a pity Moodie had not been able to defeat Kiefer on Friday after leading the German two sets to love. ”It would have put a lot of pressure on them.
”But I do believe Wesley has a good chance on Sunday because as far as I am concerned, neither Haas nor Kiefer are at the optimum condition in the altitude.”
Moodie admitted he was a little tired after this match. ”But it’s nothing that a good night’s sleep won’t cure,” he added. – Sapa