SA tennis hoping for ATP smash

Tennis coach John-Laffnie de Jager hopes that by hosting two ATP Challenger events later this month, he can help re-establish the SA Open as a premier tournament in a few years.

The Rise Irene Open will be the first ATP event in the country since the 2011 SA Open, and although a lower-grade competition — offering 50 ranking points to the winner — it is a crucial stepping stone for tennis development.

“The most important thing about these events is to give our local guys the opportunity to play locally, gain international points, and go and play overseas. It is so expensive these days to travel overseas to gain points,” said De Jager, speaking from Indian Wells, where he was wrapping up a training camp.

The injury-plagued Lloyd Harris is currently the highest-ranked South African player at No 146 in the world. The next best is 25-year-old Philip Henning at 307; Devin Badenhorst is at 793, and Kholo Montsi at 1,328.

SA players limited

Other than Harris, South African players are limited to International Tennis Federation (ITF) tournaments, which provide only 15 to 25 points for the winner, not enough to earn opportunities to qualify for some of the bigger tournaments.

“What happens with South Africans at the moment is they go to Tunisia, Türkiye, and Egypt for ITF events, not even knowing if they’re going to get into the event. They pay for travel, a week’s accommodation, train, and then see if they can get into an event the next week,” said De Jager, a doubles specialist, who reached three men’s doubles Grand Slam semifinals and two Grand Slam finals in mixed doubles.

The most important thing about these events is to give our local guys the opportunity to play locally, gain international points and go play overseas.

— John-Laffnie de Jager, tennis coach

Though Harris was the only South African player in the top 200, at the junior level, there were a lot of talented players who’d benefit from the opportunity to participate in the ATP Challenger tournaments, he said.

“Jan Bothma and Connor Doig, both are top 100 in the world in ITF rankings [for juniors]; both of them will be straight into the French Open and Wimbledon. Jahnie van Zyl on the girls’ side is good. This year, for the first time in a long time, we will have three juniors in the main draw of a junior Grand Slam.”

The first of the four Challenger tournaments will be played at Irene Country Club from May 25, followed by the Centurion Open on June 1. The Tshwane Open and Gauteng Open will be played in July and August.

A big cost

South Africa hasn’t hosted ATP events because of a lack of money and facilities, which are not up to the required ATP standard. It will cost the country about R14m for the two events. That includes prize-money and paying for the accommodation of players for up to five days. “It’s a big cost,” said De Jager.

“[However] we believe we can show people it is worth it. Two of the four events will be broadcast on SABC. We’re also talking to SuperSport to get them involved. The more we can showcase tennis, the more people will get back into it.”

Although the tournaments won’t attract household names — who have more glamorous goals to achieve at Roland Garros at the same time — the prospect of seeing players ranked from 200 will provide the highest standard of competition seen in South Africa since Kevin Anderson won the last SA Open 15 years ago.

“This event will be good for us to see guys who are ranked 200 to 500, and if we get bigger into a ‘75’ [a tournament offering 75 points for the winner], then you get guys inside the top 200,” said De Jager.

“We want to be able to host the SA Open again. It used to be the ‘5th major’. But that will take time, which is why it is so important to make sure that these challengers are successful and we get a lot of people to come and watch, make sponsors excited, and show we can build.”

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