When South African number one Kevin Anderson made himself unavailable for the Euro-Africa Group One Davis Cup tie against Macedonia, team captain John-Laffnie de Jager might have thought he would be left with something of a dilemma - but not the "happy dilemma" that has since emerged for next week's Emperors Palace confrontation.
However, such has been the recent impressive form of both Izak van der Merwe and Raven Klaasen, the two candidates to replace Anderson as the singles player along with Rik De Voest against the Macedonians, that De Jager's problem is not to find a suitable replacement - but to decide which of two in-form and more than adequate possibles to select.
"As fate would have it," said De Jager, "Kevin has picked up an ankle injury while preparing for a busy tournament schedule in the United States and would probably not have been fit for the Davis Cup in any case - while Izak and Raven really proved their mettle in the recent South African Open where they held their own against world-class opponents."
With a 281st world ranking against Klaasen's 327th, Van der Merwe would appear to have the edge in the selection stakes to be chosen as South Africa's number two singles player - particularly as his big-serving game is ideally suited to the high altitude conditions.
But, of course, stranger things have happened when it comes to the selection of South African sports teams.
More certain is that the world's eighth-ranked pairing of Wesley Moodie and Jeff Coetzee will feature in the doubles in spite of their deflating result in the South African Open.
And despite a reputation of exceeding expectations in Davis Cup competition, top Macedonian player Predrag Rusevski is ranked a modest 825th in the world and South Africa will start firm favorites to continue the long-standing objective of returning to the prestigious World Group segment of the Davis Cup.
A victory over Macedonia will earn South Africa another home tie against a more formidable Belarus team, with a success in this tie resulting in a showdown play-off against one of this year's World Group first-round losers.
(Xinhua News Agency Feburary 23, 2009)
