South African captain Roxanne Clarke has chosen four emerging stars to represent the national squad at the Billie Jean King (BJK) Cup Europe-Africa Group II competition, which will take place in Oeiras, Portugal from 10-15 April 2023.
The national team includes Mari-Louise van Zyl (16) Naledi Manyube (18) Suzanie Pretorius (18) and Isabella Kruger (16).
In the international women’s team competition, van Zyl, Pretorius, and Kruger will all make their debuts, while Manyube keeps her spot in the line-up after making her debut last season when South Africa finished fifth in Skopje, North Macedonia.
Kruger will serve as the national team’s captain despite making her debut and being younger than the majority of her teammates. She has shown enormous potential by making it all the way to the junior quarterfinals at Wimbledon last year, despite only being ranked in the top 400 for singles and the top 1000 for doubles by the WTA.
“The competition will be quite tough because we’ve moved up a group from last year, but the team is looking very good,” Clarke said after naming the SA team.
“We’re pretty excited about giving these young players a chance to represent their country. We’re really going for it and giving ourselves a chance to move up to the next level.
“It will be a very tough task, but as always we look forward to the competition and we are ready to give our best.”
Team South Africa:
Isabella Kruger
Mari-Louise Van Zyl
Naledi Manyube
Suzanie Pretorius
Roxanne Clarke (Captain)
Leanne Samaai (Physiotherapist)
Photo 1 Caption: Naledi Manyube has been selected to represent South Africa at the Billie Jean King Cup Europe-Africa Group II competition. Photo: Tennis SA (Twitter)
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