Tennis South Africa (TSA) has announced that the Kelvin Grove Club in Cape Town will host South Africa’s crucial Euro/Africa Group 2 Davis Cup tie against Bulgaria, on the 13th and 14th September 2019.
The KIA SA Davis Cup team will go into the tie knowing that victory over the Eastern Europeans will earn them immediate promotion back to Group I. South Africa suffered relegation in October last year after losing to Portugal in Lisbon.
Kelvin Grove is one of the leading tennis facilities in the country and will also be hosting a prestigious ITF Junior Grade A event in the week after the Davis Cup tie.
“We decided to take this Davis Cup tie to Cape Town for two reasons – firstly the core of the team are based in the city and the players have been keen to play in their home town for a while now, secondly with the ITF Grade A taking place in the mother city, shortly after the tie, it provided a unique opportunity to create a week-long festival of tennis at Kelvin Grove,” said Tennis SA CEO, Richard Glover.
Team Captain Marcos Ondruska said, “This should prove to be a spectacular event with the likes of a Grigor Dimitrov potentially showing up. It is home ground to the majority of the team so there should be great support willing our team forward. The entire team is ecstatic at the prospect of playing in front of their friends and families.”
South Africa – the 1974 tournament winners – are 44th overall in the Davis Cup rankings with Bulgaria in 64th place.
The home team will be bolstered by the continued growth of Cape-based Lloyd Harris on the world charts, who currently sits at number 96 on the ATP rankings.