Namibia’s national men’s tennis team gave a great performance to win the Africa Group III Davis Cup tournament in Abuja, Nigeria over the weekend, to gain promotion to the World Group II series next year.
Namibia got off to a great start in the five-day tournament when they won their opening matches against Ghana 2-1, Nigeria 3-0 and Benin 3-0. A 2-1 defeat to Zimbabwe on Friday, however, set up a tense finish to the tournament, as Zimbabwe, Nigeria and Namibia all headed into the final round of matches level on points.
Namibia beat the Ivory Coast 3-0 on Saturday, and although Zimbabwe and Nigeria also finished with four wins each, Namibia finished on top according to matches won and lost. They won 12 matches and lost three, with Zimbabwe and Nigeria both winning 10 matches and losing five.
On sets aggregate Namibia also came out on top, winning 27 sets and conceding eight, while Zimbabwe won 22 sets and conceded 13, and Nigeria 21 sets and conceded 13.
Namibia were in great form in their final match against the Ivory Coast on Saturday, winning 3-0.
Codie van Schalkwyk opened their account with a 6-4, 6-1 victory against Francky Hoimian, while his brother Connor beat Frederic Coulibaly 6-0, 6-3. Connor van Schalkwyk and Jean Erasmus sealed the tie in impressive fashion when they beat Coulibaly and Hoimian 6-1,6-1 in the doubles.
In their only defeat to Zimbabwe on Friday, Codie van Schalkwyk gave Namibia a winning start with a 6-0, 7-6 win against Lyle Zaloumis in the first singles match.
Benjamin Lock, however, levelled the tie when he beat Connor van Schalkwyk 6-1, 6-7, 6-3 in the second singles match, before Benjamin teamed up with his brother Courtney to beat Namibia’s Codie van Schalkwyk and Erasmus 6-3, 6-7, 7-6 in the doubles.
Namibia, which is ranked 77th in the world, will now compete in the Davis Cup World Group II tournament for only the second time in their history.
Some of the countries that they could face include Romania (37th), Ecuador (39), Uzbekistan (42), Bulgaria (44), Pakistan (45) and Latvia (45), as well as their South Africa, who are ranked 54th in the world.
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