It was a historic day for South Africa’s first wheelchair female tennis player as reaches a singles semi-final at Wimbledon today. Montjane has made history in tennis as being the first black female ranked player with an incredible onslaught. The world no. 5 edged out Angelica Bernal 6-1, 2-6 and 6-4 to set up a semi final clash with Momoko Ohtani . Tennis Ace, Montjane has also become a Discovery Vitality Ambassador.
Kgothatso Montjane (born 3 June 1986) is a wheelchair tennis player from South Africa. In 2018, she became the first black South African woman to compete at Wimbledon. Montjane was born in Seshego on the periphery of Polokwane, Limpopo with a congenital disorder which affected both of her hands and a foot with the other foot being amputated by the age of 12.
Montjane is a successful wheelchair tennis player who is placed in the top 10 of the ITF ranking. Her highest rank was 5 in the world in 2005.[2] She was named South Africa’s disabled sportswoman of the year three times, in 2005, 2011 and 2015. Montjane holds 29 singles titles and won tournaments such as the wheelchair Belgian Open and Swiss Open.
She is also successful in doubles, where she won, among others, the Belgian Open in 2015 together with Jordanne Whiley. In 2013 and 2014, she participated in 3 of the 4 Grand Slam tournaments, Australian Open, Roland Garros and US Open, where she was able to reach the quarter and semifinals in the singles and the semifinals in all of the doubles tournaments.
She was a member of the South African team at the 2008, 2012 and 2016 Summer Paralympics, but was not able to secure a medal. Besides being a Paralympian, she was a 2009 and 2011 World Team Cup participant for South Africa In 2018, she managed to qualify for the prestigious Wimbledon tournament, the first black South African woman to do so. In the same year, she also competed at the US Open and became therefore the first African wheelchair tennis player to qualify for all four Grand Slam tournaments in the same year
Source – Fatima Said
