Brave South Africa fall 4-1 to Morocco in Davis Cup playoff despite doubles fightback

A depleted SA Davis Cup team fought back bravely on the second day of their World Group II playoff against Morocco in Pretoria, winning the doubles tie to cut the deficit to 2-1, but the visitors showed their class in the reverse singles they ran out eventual 4-1 winners.

SA’s No 1 player Alec Beckley had lost Saturday’s first singles rubber 6-7 7-6 6-2 against Morocco’s No 2 Yassine Dlimi in front of a packed, partisan crowd at Groenkloof Tennis Club. He had come within a whisker of putting SA ahead in the tie but failed to convert two match points in the second set.   

Davis Cup debutant Marc van der Merwe lost the second tie 3-6 6-1 6-1 against Morocco’s No 1, Taha Baadi, to leave SA hanging on by a thread at the end of the first day.

Captain Pietie Norval was made to sweat overnight on whether Beckley would be fit to take the court for Sunday’s doubles rubber alongside Thando Longwe-Smith. Saturday’s draining encounter in the Pretoria heat had taken a lot out of a player who only recently recovered from illness, and was playing with two torn ligaments in his left hand.

“We're not down and out yet. We feel we're quite strong in the doubles and if we can put a full team forward and they get through it, then suddenly there will be a bit more pressure on Morocco,” Norval said at the end of the first day’s play. “We’re a little worried about Alec, but I need him in the doubles.”

The SA top seed underlined his value to the team, and repaid his skipper’s faith in him, when he and Longwe-Smith overcome the Moroccan duo of Dlimi and Younes Lalami Laaroussi 7-6 3-6 7-6 in another epic battle. 

Debutant Longwe-Smith showed great composure under pressure to help breathe new life into the tie for the home team.

With his options limited by the absence of the likes of the in-form Philip Henning, who is undergoing surgery, Norval turned to another debutant, 17-year-old Connor Doig, for the first reverse singles tie of the encounter, against Baadi. 

The youngster showed glimpses of his undoubted talent with a solid start, before the far more experienced Moroccan found his range to win 6-3 6-2 and secure the tie 3-1 for the north Africans.

The fifth member of the SA Davis Cup team, 19-year-old Leo Matthysen, lost 6-1 6-2 against Karim Bennani on Sunday afternoon as the playoff ended 4-1 to the visitors, a repeat of the scoreline from their last Davis Cup clash in Morocco 20 years ago. 

Morocco will now progress to the World Group I promotion playoffs and SA will compete in the World Group II relegation playoffs.