Pietie Norval names his Davis Cup squad for home tie against Nigeria

Phillip Henning will be the top-ranked player in South Africa’s Davis Cup team to face Nigeria in Pretoria next weekend.

Captain Pietie Norval on Wednesday named Henning alongside Kris van Wyk, Alec Beckley and Leo Matthysen in the outfit to take on the West Africans at Groenkloof next Saturday and Sunday.

Henning, Beckley and Matthysen were part of the team that took on Lebanon in their last tie. Henning is ranked 326th on the ATP (625th doubles), Van Wyk 361th (386th doubles) and Beckley 570th (431st doubles).

Matthysen is the young player in the team, there to get experience, especially if the South Africans can clinch the tie early.

The winner of this World Group 2 tie will head into a promotion/relegation match for a spot in World Group 1.

“We’ve got to go and do the job and if we do get through that tie we’ll play a promotion/relegation match which will end up being extremely important,” said Norval, a doubles specialist in his day who won Olympic silver with Wayne Ferreira at Barcelona 1992 and the 1999 French Open mixed doubles crown.

“That [World Group I] is where we want to be … obviously we don’t know who we will play if we do get through but that tie will be, I’m assuming, significantly more difficult.”

Norval said one of his focus areas would be finding the team’s best doubles combination. “I also have quite a bit of work to see if we can get our best doubles combination ready because that’s often the result is determined by who wins the doubles match.”

He didn’t want to underestimate Nigeria, saying they had some good players. “I’ve done as much research as I can and spoke to some of my colleagues that have played the team before recently.

“We’re not quite sure which team they’re going to [enter]. They do have one or two talented players, but they don’t always play them.”

The team will assemble officially on Monday.

At the function in Johannesburg Tennis South Africa general manager Anthony Moruthane also announced a three-year deal with new mobility sponsor Renault, which will provide vehicles for the squad.