South Africa at the 2001 Federation Cup

South Africa at the 2001 Federation Cup was one of the teams in the Group I of the Europe/Africa zone and the team had been contesting the Federation Cup since its beginning. The greatest achievement of the South African team came in the year 1972 when the team had lifted the Federation Cup trophy. Thus the South African team was among the ten teams who are the champions of the competition.

The performance of South Africa at the 2001 Federation Cup began on 24th April and ended on the 26th April and the team played three Round Robin ties in Spain on the outdoor clay court. In their first tie the team met with the challenge of the Ukraine team and there was a great contest between the two teams but the South African team’s struggle ended in defeat and lost the round by 1-2. In the second tie the South African team played against the team of Estonia and it should not have been difficult for the one time champion of the competition to win the tie but that did not happen the Estonian team defeated the South Africans by 1-2. The third and the last tie of the South African team was contested against the team of Slovenia and there was again a big struggle for the victory of the tie but the South African players could not overcome their rivals and lost their third consecutive tie in the competition and had to suffer relegation in the Group II of their zone for the 2002 competition.

South Africa at the 2001 Federation Cup suffered relegation to the lower group of their zone which was unbelievable for the one time champion of the competition. The South African team lost all their ties in the competition and showed their poor performance.