South Africa completed the job on Sunday when they eased to a 3-1 overall win over NIgeria in their Davis Cup World Group II Playoff tie in Pretoria, after the scores had been level at 1-1 after Saturday’s action.
South Africa’s top-ranked player Philip Henning finished the tie on Sunday, winning his reverse singles rubber to give the hosts an unassailable 3-1 advantage after they’d earlier won the double match.
With captain Pietie Norval making late changes to their doubles pairing, Henning and Kris van Wyk took to the court. They romped to a decisive 6-0 6-3 win over the second-string Nigerian pairing of Canice Abua and Michael Emmanuel, giving the hosts a 2-1 lead ahead of the reverse singles.
“Our plan was to get the doubles over as quickly as possible, knowing that Philip (Henning) had to come back and play singles, and it worked in the end,” Norval said.
While the South Africans were in the driving seat, Nigeria had rested their top two players for the doubles.
However, Henning managed to hold off a strong challenge from Nigeria’s No2, Cristopher Bulus, in the reverse singles.
Bulus won the first set in a tightly contested match, before Henning clawed his way back into the match and edged ahead, clinching a 6-7 6-4 6-4 victory.
“The whole match was a battle, and we went back and forth. He (Bulus) played a great match and every single game was tough, but I think my legs maybe lasted a bit longer than his,” Henning said.