OPINION: The SA tennis team need Lloyd Harris to climb Davis Cup ladder
· Citizen
South African sports fans would be forgiven for not being aware that the national tennis team were in action on home soil last month.
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With multiple other events on the go, including national rugby and cricket tours, the focus was elsewhere, and nobody can really blame people for not noticing that the struggling tennis side were competing in a World Group II tie in the Davis Cup.
They lost 4-0 against the visiting Bosnia and Herzegovina side at the two-day tie in Centurion, and they are now in danger of facing potential relegation.
For years now, the SA tennis squad have been locked in this endless battle to lift themselves from the lower tiers of the international men’s team competition.
And as things stand, it seems only one player can really change this: Lloyd Harris.
Top-ranked player
The country’s top-ranked player has had injury issues throughout his elite career, but he remains SA’s top performer on the ATP Tour, yet he hasn’t played a Davis Cup tie since 2022.
He will, of course, have his reasons for not making himself available because he has personal ambitions on the brutally competitive international tennis circuit.
And this is nothing new. Former world No 5 Kevin Anderson also turned down Davis Cup invites at the peak of his career, and while this was controversial at the time, he had good reason to focus on himself.
Anderson reached two Grand Slam finals, carrying the national flag at the highest level of the sport, and he was chasing lofty ambitions which required his full focus.
Unlike Anderson, however, Harris is not in a position to be challenging for major titles, and there’s no real reason to believe he will reach that level any time soon.
So what’s more important: Floating around the international circuit outside the top 100 in the rankings, or playing a key role in helping your country rise to the upper echelon of the Davis Cup?
National squad needs a boost
While national captain Pietie Norval believes the current SA team can climb to World Group I without Harris, and Norval does have a group of gutsy players who dig deep and fight for their lives when they wear national colours, the latest defeat to Bosnia is a stark reminder that South Africa simply don’t have the star quality to climb the ladder without our best players.
If Harris avails himself for two weeks a year, the SA team will have the quality and depth required to at least challenge for a spot in World Group I.
With him, they have the chance to build nationwide support in their endeavours. Without him, nobody even notices when they play.
His presence in the squad seems worth the relatively small sacrifice it would require.