SUPERSPORT
Johannesburg, South Africa – Good news for South African tennis fans is that the Europe/Africa Zone 2 Davis Cup tie against Turkey will be shown live on SuperSport 8 on Friday,Saturday and Sunday.
New SA captain Earl Grainger and his team of Fritz Wolmarans, Tucker Vorster, Raven Klaasen and Ruan Roelofse are currently in Mersin, Turkey
where they will take on Marsel Ilhan, Cem Ilkel, Baris Erguden and Anil Yuksel. The tie will be played indoors on hard court. The two players who stand out for each team are Klaasen for South Africa, placed No 29 in the world doubles ranking, and Ilhan for Turkey, the world No 77 ranked singles player.
Play begins at noon on Friday and will see SA No 1 Wolmarans play Turkey’s No 2 Ilkel. That will be followed by Vorster against Ilhan. The doubles rubber will be played on Saturday, staring at 14h00, and will pit Klaasen and Roelofse of SA against Erguden and Yuksel of Turkey. The
doubles teams can be altered up to one hour before the start of play. The reverse singles will begin at noon on Sunday and Wolmarans will kick
off the day’s proceedings against Ilhan after which Vorster will come up against Ilkel.
With Kevin Anderson unavailable for the tie captain Earl Grainger is happy to have the strongest available team at his disposal. Gavin Crookes, President and acting CEO of Tennis South (TSA), said he was delighted SuperSport had agreed to televise the tie live. “These are young players and most of them are relatively unknown to the public. This will give South African tennis fans the opportunity to see some of our new players in
action and hopefully we will see them perform at their best. “It is always tricky to play a tie away from home but I understand the
spirit of the team is high and they are all looking forward to representing the country.”