Namibia’s national men’s tennis team won the Davis Cup Africa Group III tournament in Harare by the narrowest of margins after pipping Senegal to the post.
Namibia comfortably beat Zimbabwe 3-0 in their final encounter on Saturday, but Nigeria caused an upset by beating Senegal 2-1, which left all three nations level with three wins from four matches. Namibia and Senegal could also not be separated on sets won, with both winning nine and losing three. They were finally separated on games won and Namibia got the nod, winning 149 games and conceding 104, while Senegal won 122 games and conceded 107.
On Saturday, Namibia comfortably beat Zimbabwe 3-0 without dropping a set.
In the first singles match, Codie van Schalkwyk beat Ronan Mtisi 6-4, 6-2, while his brother and Namibia’s number one, Connor van Schalkwyk, beat Ethan Sibanda 6-2, 6-3.
That gave Namibia an unbeatable 2-0 lead and Zimbabwe pulled out of the doubles encounter, giving Steyn Dippenaar and Connor van Schalkwyk a 6-0, 6-0 walkover win over Ronan Mtisi and Ethan Sibanda.
Namibia had earlier beaten Algeria 2-1 and Nigeria 3-0, but lost 2-1 to Senegal. Namibia’s captain and coach Gerrie Dippenaar said he was very proud of his team.
“I’m a very proud captain to tell you that Namibia finished number one, Senegal number two, and Nigeria number three. It was an awesome week for this Namibian team. The team consists of Connor and Codie van Schalkwyk, Steyn Dippenaar, and Ruben Yssel, and they make my job so easy because they cooperate so well. We have the same vision for this team and I never have to motivate these guys, they know what it’s all about,” he said.
“We want Namibia to play on the world stage and now we want to qualify again for the World Group II. Unfortunately, earlier in the year, we narrowly lost 3-2 to Hong Kong China when we qualified for the world group, but this time around we are ready to take on the teams of Europe. All I can say to the people back home is you can be really proud of this team, these guys play for Namibia and I’m a very proud captain,” he added.
Namibia, Senegal and Nigeria are now promoted to the World Group II playoffs, while Algeria and Zimbabwe are relegated to Africa Group IV.
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