Namibian tennis faces its biggest challenge yet when it hosts Hong Kong in a Davis Cup World Group II play-off tie on 1 and 2 February.
Namibia reached the Group II play-off stage after winning the Africa Group III tournament in Nigeria last year, thereby becoming only the second Namibian team to win Africa Group III following their inaugural triumph in 2018.
Namibia, however, has never reached the Davis Cup World Group stage, which consists of the top 52 ranked nations in the world, and now stands on the cusp of creating history when they host Hong Kong.
The Davis Cup World Group 1 consists of the top 26 nations in the world and World Group II of the next 26, ie 27th to 52nd, and reaching that stage will be a huge achievement for Namibia which is only ranked 72nd in the world.
Namibia, however, has a young and talented team, led by the Van Schalkwyk brothers Connor and Codie, as well as Steyn Dippenaar, who are all in their early 20s while Ruben Yssel is still only 16 years old. Jean Erasmus, who formed part of the 2018 squad, is the only veteran in the team at the age of 34.
Besides their talented squad they have an astute captain and coach in Gerrie Dippenaar, under whose guidance they have steadily climbed the rankings.
“When I took over as captain of the Namibian Davis Cup team four years ago we were still in Group 4 of Africa,” he recalled yesterday.
“We had a very young team and I said from the first day, ‘boys there are two things that we are going to work – firstly to win Africa Group III and secondly to get into the World Group. If Namibia, with its small population can get there it will be an incredible achievement,” he said.
“We’ve come very close over the past few years. In 2022 we lost a third set tiebreaker, otherwise we would have qualified, and in 2023 we just needed one set to qualify but then Connor got injured. So last year we said we want to qualify as the top team from Africa Group III so we went all out and won the tournament in Abuja,” he said.
Namibia is currently ranked 72nd in the world and sixth in Africa, behind Egypt (44), Morocco (54), Tunisia (56), South Africa (57) and Zimbabwe (71).
Hong Kong, however, is ranked 59th in the world, while their top player, Coleman Wong is currently ranked 170th in the world, and they will enter the tie as the firm favourites.
Dippenaar said the Namibian players are true ambassadors and determined to make their country oproud.
“They are role models and real ambassadors for Namibian tennis. It makes me as coach very proud to know that I have players who really want to represent their country, it’s not as if I have to beg them to make themselves available, these guys want to play for Namibia and it just makes it so much easier,” he said.
He called on Namibian fans to come out in numbers to support the team.
“Our team is still young and I can’t imagine where we will be in four or five years time. The future looks bright for Namibian tennis, and we would like as many people as possible to come and support the team, because they need the support and it will mean a lot to the players,” he said.
“We are very thankful that we got a home tie, because the home support will be crucial, while it will also be a great opportunity for Namibians to see international tennis of a high standard,” he added.
“Hong Kong is ranked quite higher than us, so we will go into the tie as the underdogs, but we have been in this position before, and with passion and grit the guys have managed to pull it through. We will give our utmost best for Namibia, and although the odds are stacked against us, it is not impossible to pull off a big surprise,” he said.
