SA Tennis out of Games

Johannesburg - It is tennis's first historic appearance on the Commonwealth Games calendar, but South Africa have been double-faulted out of the October event in New Delhi by the South African Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee (SASCOC).

This was confirmed on Thursday by South African Tennis Association chief executive Ian Smith, who said the decision had been taken after the country's Davis Cup squad members, Kevin Anderson, Izak van der Merwe, Rik de Voest, Raven Klaasen, Wesley Moodie and Jeff Coetzee, had all declared their unavailability because of previous commitments on the international circuit.

It was not known whether top South African women player, Chani Scheepers, would have made herself available, but apparently the negotiations with SASCOC never reached that stage.

"In line with their overall policy," said Smith, "SASCOC felt only those sportsmen and women with a chance of gaining a medal should be included in the party going to India.

"We obviously regret not being able to send a team to the Commonwealth Games, particularly as tennis will be debuting at the event" added the SATA CEO, "but we understand SASCOC's point of view."

Smith said tennis had hoped to select a team to New Delhi made up of promising young players who had the potential to make their way into the big-time in the future. Conspicuous in this category would have been South Africa's brightest young prospects, 18 year-old Chanel Simmonds and 19 year-old Nikala Scholz.

It was thought the opportunity of representing their country at an auspicious international event would have been a major boost and stimulant to their careers and with the tennis entry in New Delhi not expected to include the world's top men and women players, Simmonds and Scholtz would not have been no-hopers for honours either.

As it is, a more enlightened Australia, among others, have taken the opportunity of selecting a youthful tennis squad as part of their Commonwealth Games contingent - and this could pay dividends in the future.

But, not for the first time, South African sport appears to be taking two steps backwards in the hope of moving one step forward.