When it comes to the history of great tennis players, South Africa has a lot to be proud of. This Heritage Month, Baseline Racquets is taking a look back at some of the tennis greats and how they paved the way for the future stars of today.
Kevin Curren
Curren was a professional tennis great. He played in two Grand Slam singles finals and won four Grand Slam doubles titles, reaching a career-high singles ranking of World No. 5. In terms of ranking, only Kevin Anderson has ever matched him.
Amanda Coetzer
Coetzer, one of tennis’ smallest players at 1.58m, was nicknamed “The Little Assassin” for her small stature, yet aggressive style. She turned pro in 1988 and entered the top 20 in the WTA in 1992. She remained there for almost a decade. Coetzer had an impressive run, regularly beating higher-ranked players. She reached three Grandslam semi-finals in her career – an incredible achievement.
Kevin Anderson
Anderson is one of South Africa’s best-known tennis players. Anderson achieved his career-high ranking of world No. 5 in 2018.
He was the first South African to be ranked in the top 5 since Kevin Curren was No. 5 on 23 September 1985. Anderson reached his second major final in 2018, at the Wimbledon semifinals. Here he famously defeated John Isner in a match that lasted 6 hours and 36 minutes – the second longest match in history.
Want to relive Kevin Andersons’ best shots? Watch Now
Lucas Sithole
Lucas Sithole is one of South Africa’s best wheelchair tennis players. Sithole was the 2013 US Open wheelchair tennis quad champion. He also won the 2016 Australian Open Grand Slam in doubles. He has changed the face of wheelchair tennis and put the sport on the map for our country. We now have our future stars such as KG Montjane and Donald Ramphadi who are flying the flag high in this incredible sport.
Wayne Ferreira
Ferreira was a South African tennis player known for regularly upsetting top seeds. He even has a positive record against some of the biggest names in tennis such as Federer, Rafter, Kafelnikov, McEnroe, Lendl, and Borg. He’s had an impressive career with 15 top-level singles titles and 11 doubles titles. He was ranked as high as world no. 6 and world n. 9 in doubles.
Currently, Ferreira is coaching Tiafoe and can be applauded for his great job as Tiafoe recently reached the semis of the 2022 US Open.
The present and future stars
Lloyd Harris
Harris is a current ATP player that has been ranked as high as World No. 31. He’s won three ATP Challenger singles titles and two Challenger doubles titles, with 13 ITF SIngles titles under his belt. At 25, there is still a bright future ahead for this young star and we can’t wait to see his star continue to rise.
Who to watch out for!
As we previously mentioned, KG Montjane and Donald Ramphadi are making waves in wheelchair tennis – both had incredible performances at the recent US Open. Montjane reached the ladies’ doubles final and Ramphadi reached the singles semi-finals. An incredible effort by two incredible athletes.
Two other up-and-coming young players on the ITF circuit are Baseline Warriors Dylan Salton and Alec Beckley. Salton was picked to be part of the Davis Cup team in March 2022, to play alongside Lloyd Harris against Israel.
Beckley is currently competing on the ITF circuit and has had some great matches recently, reaching a couple of quarterfinals and taking out some top seeds.
Baseline Racquets can’t wait to see what the bright future holds for our tennis stars – we’re behind them all the way.