MOBILE, Ala. – Tuki Jacobs, a sophomore on the University of South Alabama men's tennis team, has been chosen to represent his home country for the third time in the Davis Cup.

Jacobs and the Namibian team will travel to the Smash Tennis Academy in Cairo, Egypt to compete in the Group Three Africa Zone starting Monday.

The No. 1 player for Namibia in back-to-back years, Jacobs hopes to take what he has learned from a team setting at South Alabama and lead his country to better results than previous years.

"I am looking forward to this opportunity," said Jacobs. "This is my first year playing in the Davis Cup while I am in college. It's just nice to have your mindset out of college tennis for a little while, but I can definitely relate better to playing as a team after having done it for a year now."

The Davis Cup, run by the International Tennis Federation, originally took place in 1900 as a competition between USA and Great Britain, but is now the world's largest annual international team competition after having 122 nations entered in 2014. It is structured with a 16-nation World Group, contested over four weekends during the year. The remaining countries are then divided into regional zones over four levels depending on their location, and compete to get promoted to a higher group.

Jacobs was one of four players chosen to train and compete for Namibia this year. Being selected for this team was based on past results in the Davis Cup and results from national tournaments in Africa. Even though Jacobs spends most of the year away from his home country and teammates, he doesn't think it will be a challenge playing with them in this setting.

"We have all known each other since we were young," said Jacobs. "Even though I don't see them regularly, we always get together and practice while I am home."

In 2012, Jacobs was first chosen to be a part of Namibia's Davis Cup team. He posted a 1-3 record in singles and a 1-0 mark in doubles as the No. 2 player behind teammate Jean Erasmus, then a senior on the Drake University men's tennis team. Last year, Jacobs improved to 2-1 in singles at the No. 1 spot.

Jacobs chose to pursue college tennis in the United States after being recruited by South Alabama head coach Nick Brochu.

"Before we recruited Tuki, he was training in South Africa," said Brochu. "Over the past few years, we have been getting a lot of players from South Africa so we had a good contact there. Right away we found out that Tuki had a good foundation, not only in tennis, but mentally he sounded really strong and had a good family background. We were very fortunate to sign him."

After posting a 20-10 record as a freshman, Brochu is certain that Jacobs will find success at the Davis Cup and return as an even stronger competitor for the Jaguars.

"This is a great opportunity for him," said Brochu. "When you play for your country, it is a great honor and he is very proud to be selected. It's a different type of pressure, but I think he will be able to handle it. Going there and training and competing with the national team is only going to benefit him. He will come back stronger and with more experience.

"Tuki has a big serve and a massive forehand. He is very athletic and can rally, but he brings a lot of power to the game. On the team, you always have very powerful guys, guys that are more consistent and guys that are a little all-around. Tuki has great weapons and you always enjoy having a guy like that on the team. It also helps everyone learn how to defend against a player like him."

Brochu not only thinks this year's team will benefit from Jacobs' experience in the Davis Cup, but the Jaguar tennis program overall as well.

"I think this is great exposure for us," said Brochu. "We have a guy who is going to play in the Davis Cup and not many programs can say that. It shows that you can aspire to play on a professional level by first playing in college."

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