Namibia lost 2-1 to Senegal at the Davis Cup Africa Group III tournament in Harare yesterday, but still have a chance of gaining promotion to the Davis Cup World Group II.
Namibia, Senegal, the hosts Zimbabwe, Nigeria and Algeria are battling it out in the Zimbabwean capital to secure a place in the 2026 World Group II play-offs.
The tournament, which started on Tuesday, is being conducted on a round-robin basis, with each team playing four matches across five days.
The sides finishing first, second, and third will be promoted to next year’s World Group II play-offs, while those finishing in fourth and fifth will be relegated to Africa Group IV.
Namibia, who are the top-ranked nation at the tournament with a world ranking of 73, opened their campaign with a 2-1 victory against the 96th ranked Algeria on Tuesday.
In the singles, Connor van Schalkwyk beat Samir Hamza Reguig 4-6, 6-3, 6-2, but his brother Codie van Schalkwyk lost 2-6, 7-6, 2-6 to Toufik Sahtali.
In the doubles, the Van Schalkwyk brothers teamed up to beat Sahtali and Hamza Reguig 7-6, 6-4 to win the tie 2-1.
Yesterday, Namibia took on Senegal, ranked 88 in the world, and suffered a narrow 2-1 defeat in a tie that went down to the wire.
Senegal got off to a winning start as Andre Seydina beat Codie van Schalkwyk 6-3, 6-2, but Namibia immediately drew level when Connor van Schalkwyk beat Nicolas Jadoun 6-1, 6-3 in the second singles encounter.
The doubles encounter between the Van Schalkwyk brothers and Jadoun and Seydina was a thriller from the start, with the momentum swinging back and forth throughout.
The Senegal pair narrowly won the first set on a tiebreaker 7-6, but the Namibians struck back to win the second set 6-3 to send the match into a deciding third set.
Here, nothing much separated the two sides again as the set once again went into a tiebreaker with the Senegal pair once again emerging victorious, to win the match 7-6, 3-6, 7-6.
The win put Senegal at the top of the log after they beat the 74th ranked Zimbabwe 3-0 on Tuesday. Despite the defeat, Namibia is still well-placed in the competition, lying second behind Senegal, and ahead of Algeria, Nigeria, and Zimbabwe.
Namibia still has to play Zimbabwe and Nigeria, who are ranked 77th in the world.
The sides finishing first, second, and third will be promoted to next year’s World Group II play-offs, while those finishing fourth and fifth will be relegated to Africa Group IV.
The Davis Cup World Group II consists of 26 nations throughout the world and includes African nations in Egypt, Morocco, South Africa, Togo and Benin.
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