Losing like this hurts even more‚ says beaten SA Davis Cup captain

South Africa’s beaten Davis Cup players must learn from their defeat to Israel at the weekend‚ team captain Marcos Ondruska said afterwards.

The hosts had led 2-1 going into the reverse singles at the Irene country club in Pretoria on Saturday‚ but both Lloyd Harris and Nik Scholtz were blown out in straight sets.

Israel will take on Czech Republic in April as they they continue their campaign to reach the main draw of the Davis Cup.

South Africa will face one of Sweden‚ Ukraine or Portugal in a playoff in September to stay in Europe-Africa Group I.

“It’s a bit of an unfortunate finish to this whole thing over here‚” said Ondruska‚ who must have tasted victory when his doubles team won their match to give SA the 2-1 advantage.

“I don’t like losing at the best of times and to lose like this hurts even more.

“It’s a young team and it’s been our first loss in a while so these could be some good learning lessons over here to take from these situations over here and hopefully something these can springboard off‚ use as motivation to get better.”

There’s no doubting the talent of Harris‚ who turns 21 later this month — a factor Israel’s top player‚ veteran Dudi Sela‚ acknowledged.

After beating Harris‚ Sela walked over and sat down next to him on court‚ chatting to him.

“He was just saying to me‚ ‘tough loss‚ don’t worry‚ you still have a lot ahead of you‚ it’s just the beginning’‚ you know‚” said Harris.

“‘You still have a very long career’ and he was just saying to keep working‚ keep pushing forward. Ja‚ we’re good friends so he was just being very nice and obviously I told him that I have great respect [for him]. He’s a legend for me.”

Harris looked more sluggish as the match continued‚ and there was talk it was the result of food poisoning‚ although he declined to talk about it afterwards‚ preferring to credit his opponent.

Sela played eight sets in three matches in less than 24 hours‚ surviving a three-set thriller against Nik Scholtz on Friday night and then coming out for the doubles match on Saturday morning and then 30 minutes later playing Harris.

Yet the result could have been so different had bad weather not interrupted the Sela-Scholtz match. Scholtz had fought back to win the second set‚ and the momentum seemed to be with him when the lightning and rain arrived.

Sela was the stronger player when they returned after the break of more than an hour and he won the third set 7-5.

“It’s cruel‚” Ondruska admitted. “It could have easily [been over after the doubles]. If it hadn’t rained Nik was on a roll and he was really doing the right things.

“Honestly‚ if there hadn’t been a rain break I think things might have gone our way in that match.”