Alec Beckley seals dramatic Davis Cup victory for South Africa over Montenegro

Alec Beckley of Team South Africa showed tremendous courage under pressure to fight back from 5-2 down in the last reverse singles tie and seal a dramatic Davis Cup World Group II play-off victory over Montenegro at Irene Country Club in Centurion on Sunday afternoon.

The play-off was level at 1-1 after Saturday's opening singles rubbers. SA No 1 Philip Henning had coasted to a convincing 6-4 6-2 victory over Montenegro No 2 Aleksa Krivokapic, while No 2 Beckley fell 6-2 3-6 6-3 to Montenegro No 1 Petar Jovanovic.

Sunday morning's doubles rubber did not go to plan for the home team, with the duo of Thando Longwe-Smit and Henning losing 6-2 7-6 (7/3) to Jovanovic and Krivokapic in a hard-fought encounter.

SA team captain Pietie Norval's gamble of fielding Henning in the doubles in the place of Kris van Wyk was in danger of backfiring, with SA 2-1 down and only the two reverse singles ties left to salvage victory.

But Henning showed few ill-effects of the doubles match when he stepped back on court shortly thereafter to seal another comfortable 6-3 6-2 victory – this time over Jovanovic. The Pretoria heat and altitude had clearly drained the Montenegro top seed, and he had no answer to the strong serve, deep return and powerful groundstrokes of SA's Davis Cup veteran.

With more time to recover, Krivokapic looked a lot fresher than his countryman as he raced into a 5-2 lead against Beckley in the decisive fifth rubber. However, the South African ace refused to surrender as he clawed his way back into the tie and forced the first set into a tie-break, roared on by a sold-out home crowd. With the momentum clearly behind him, he sealed the breaker 7-3.

A crucial break in the sixth game of the second set gave Beckley a commanding 4-2 lead and he never gave his opponent a sniff of a potential fightback in his march to the straight-sets 7-6 6-3 win.

"It wasn't easy. I was 5-2 down and I knew we needed this, and I just managed to keep my thoughts quiet – stay in the moment, go into tunnel vision," Beckley said, in his post-match TV interview. "I managed to find my game and then I just took it point by point."

SA captain Pietie Norval had never wavered in his faith in the SA No 2, backing him even after he had lost his opening singles tie, when it would have been easy to replace him with another team member.

"This is heart-attack stuff," the relieved former doubles star said after his faith had been repaid in spades. "Credit to the Montenegro team – they played so well.

"There was a time when I thought we weren't going to make it, but thanks to Philip for putting us in a position to play that final match. Alec and I had done some mental preparation for this match over the last two days and he did so well coming back from yesterday."

The victory means SA will retain their place in World Group II for the ties in September.