CENTURION, September 21, 2022 (Tennis South Africa Press Release)
South Africa’s Davis Cup team will face Luxembourg in away tie in the World Group II Play-offs in 2023, after the two nations were pitted in a draw conducted at the ITF headquarters in London, United Kingdom, on Tuesday.
The tie will be played at a yet-to-be-determined venue in Luxembourg.
The scheduled dates are either Friday, 3 – Saturday, 4 February or Saturday, 4 – Sunday, 5 February 2023.
Team South Africa were relegated to the World Group II Play-offs last weekend, following their 3-0 loss away to Bulgaria in Sofia.
The two nations have played once before in Davis Cup – in 2016 at Irene Country Club in Pretoria when the hosts thrashed the North-western Europe country 5-0.
South African team captain Christo van Rensburg admitted that away ties are always tricky, but he was confident, “This is my fourth tie for South Africa as a Davis Cup captain, and we are playing away, again. So, we will have to wait until closer to the time to see what surface Luxembourg will pick.
“Luckily for us, on paper, they (Luxembourg) have no players currently ranked in the top 700, so that makes it a little easier.
“At this stage, we have been building our team up still and hopefully Lloyd Harris will be ready by early next year coming back from an injury. We will see how his recovery progress is going and work on the rest of the team to face Luxembourg,” Van Rensburg said.
South Africa is ranked 52 on the Davis Cup world rankings twenty-four spots ahead of Luxembourg at 76.
Luxembourg’s current top two singles players includes Chris Rodesch (World no. 707) and Alex Knaff (World no. 750) who are likely to represent their country. Their top two doubles players include Alex Knaff and Raphael Calzi who are ranked 468 and 677 in the ATP rankings respectively.
Winning nations from the World Group II Play-offs will compete in World Group II ties in September 2023. Losing nations from World Group II Play-offs will compete in Regional Group III events later in 2023.
