JOHANNESBURG - South Africa marched through to the second round of the Euro-Africa Group II after they claimed an unassailable 3-0 lead in their Davis Cup tie against Estonia at Irene Country Club on Saturday.
Once again doing the business for South Africa, Raven Klaasen and Ruan Roelofse claimed their fourth consecutive victory as a pair, beating their Estonian opponents 6-7 (4) 6-3 6-4 7-5.
South Africa look set for a second-round collision course with Slovenia, who ended the first day 2-0 up against Monaco.
After South Africa bulldozed their way past Estonia in the singles matches on the first day of the tie, doubles victory seemed a mere formality.
Estonia’s doubles paring of Kenneth Raisma and Mattias Siimar did not allow South Africa that satisfaction, though, as they put up a gallant fight in the opening set.
The Estonian team has some tennis pedigree, considering Raisma with his partner won Junior Wimbledon last year.
Of course his credentials pale in comparison to Klaasen, who reached a career-high ninth in the doubles rankings in July last year.
“We lost the first set where we felt we weren’t losing on our serve and we had a few chances on their serve, so to sit at the end of that set not having it on our side of the scoreboard was a bit frustrating,” Klaasen said.
“We were creating opportunities and we just needed sustained pressure for long enough and those two guys are certainly not novices in the doubles department.
“They put some moves together that made it difficult for us but we are very pleased with the result.”
The young Estonians did not allow their opponents’ superior experience to intimidate them as they forced the tiebreaker, which they won with relative ease.
South Africa took the second set by the scruff of the neck early on, breaking Estonia on their first service game.
Buoyed by the early advantage, Roelofse and Klaasen took the game away from the tourists, claiming the second set 6-3. The home team broke Siimar in the second set with South Africa going 3-0 up then holding serve to level the scores. The third set was a tighter affair as South Africa had to work hard for the advantage before breaking Estonia in the ninth game to give them a 2-1 lead.
South Africa made it difficult on themselves while also battling against the talented Raisma’s service game.
Only once did he have break points against him, but he managed to fight his way back to keep his serve record untarnished.
South Africa also kept a clean sheet on their serve with Roelofse conceding a break point only once in the match in the eighth game of the fourth set. While South Africa had a brief scare then, which would have sent them into a fifth and deciding set, they also squandered a few break points on Estonia’s serve.
“That was a big point and it could easily have been the set gone and we would have been into the fifth,” Roelofse said.
South Africa’s non-playing Davis Cup captain Marcos Ondruska said he would keep his line-up unchanged for the reverse singles with Lloyd Harris and Nik Scholtz playing best-of-three-sets matches given that the tie is already decided.