The 21st century
South Africa · born Seshego, Limpopo, 1986 · Wimbledon wheelchair doubles champion 2024 · singles finalist 2021
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2018
Wimbledon debut, reaching the singles semi-final
2021
First African woman in a major final
6-4, 6-4
2024 Wimbledon doubles final with Yui Kamiji
29
Career singles titles
Born in Seshego, on the edge of Polokwane in Limpopo, in 1986, Montjane was recruited into wheelchair tennis at 19, in her last year at school, and won her first tournament in Pretoria that year. She won her first international title at the Belgian Open in 2010 and was named South Africa's disabled sportswoman of the year in 2005, 2011 and 2015. She represented South Africa at the Paralympics from 2008. In singles she reached a career-high world No. 4 at the end of 2021 and the semi-finals of all four majors. In doubles, partnering Yui Kamiji, she won the French and US Opens in 2023, Wimbledon in 2024 and the French Open again in 2025, and became world No. 1 in March 2024.
| Major singles finals lost | 1: Wimbledon (2021) |
|---|---|
| Major doubles titles | 1: Wimbledon (2024) |
| Wimbledon doubles | 2024 champion with Yui Kamiji, beating Diede de Groot and Jiske Griffioen 6-4, 6-4; runner-up with Kamiji in 2023, losing to De Groot and Griffioen 6-1, 6-4 |
| Wimbledon singles | Semi-finalist on her debut in 2018, on a wild card; finalist in 2021 |
| Final to remember | 2021 singles: won the first two games against De Groot, then lost 6-2, 6-2; the first major final reached by an African woman |
| Wimbledon | ||
|---|---|---|
| 2024 | Women's wheelchair doubles | with Yui Kamiji |
Leading grass titles only: the grass majors, tour-level grass events since 1968 and the leading grass championships before 1968. †single source; ‡ sources disagree. Roll of champions
"When the young generation sees someone doing well it inspires them to take up the sport."
The person behind the player.
Limpopo · 2005
Recruited at 19, she had never seen tennis: "I didn't even know what it was." She did not enjoy being made to play and planned to drop it at university, only to find it was the one active sport open to disabled students there. Her first tournament, in Pretoria, she won, and she liked the big trophy and the prize money.
Source: International Paralympic CommitteeEurope · 2006
Having beaten everyone at home, she felt like the real deal until her first trip to Europe: "it didn't go well because everyone was really good." Her role model was Esther Vergeer, whom she came to idolise after reading about the sport. Her first international title came four years later, at the Belgian Open in 2010.
Source: International Paralympic CommitteeWimbledon 2018
Offered a wild card, she was never going to refuse. What struck her was the company: "I can't believe that I am competing in the same space as them," she said of Roger Federer and Serena Williams, adding "we share the same locker room, we share the same dining space." She reached the semi-final.
Source: ESPNWimbledon 2021 · Final
She won the first two games of the final against De Groot but lost 6-2, 6-2, and lost the doubles final too. She took a wider view of the week: being there was about "giving hope to Africans, not only South Africans".
Source: Daily MaverickOR Tambo Airport · 2024
The day after the 2024 doubles final, a crowd with cameras met her at the airport in Johannesburg, and Limpopo's sport MEC, Jerry Maseko, said he would ask the private sector to build a tennis court named after her. "I'm still digesting it, but I'm sure it will sink in," she said. To young players: "Their turn will come."
Source: SAnewsFree membership: player news, the grass court Atlas, the rankings and the grass season calendar.
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