SA’s Raven flies high but misses Games
Wimbledon doubles semifinalist just too late to qualify for Rio Olympics
AS he reflects on narrowly missing out on his own Olympic dream, South African tennis star Raven Klaasen understands the tightrope an athlete walks between patriotism and professionalism, and how it may take time for a sport such as golf to find its Olympic sweet spot.
This weekend Klaasen again represents his country in the Davis Cup tie against Lithuania — for a small shared fee that is significantly less than the prize money they could earn. Others such as Kevin Anderson have not been as charitable, citing various reasons and preferring instead to focus on furthering their own careers and representing their country this way.
Klaasen is playing the best tennis of his life, having broken into the world’s top 10 after he and doubles partner Rajeev Ram of the US made it to the Wimbledon semifinals.
Yet he will break away from this growth in his game to play for South Africa. Granted, playing Davis Cup was an Olympic qualification criteria. But Klaasen has always been unfailingly committed to the national cause and has a work ethic and passion for his sport that is universally respected on the ATP Tour.
He is also keenly aware that blind patriotism doesn’t pay the bills in professional sport, and as such he appreciates what golf is busy going through with its Olympic return and the lukewarm reception from the world’s top professionals.
“I have always enjoyed playing Davis Cup for South Africa. Being able to represent your country is the pinnacle for a player in my opinion. But I have to say that it has been more than challenging to make myself available because sometimes it actually puts my personal career at risk,” he said.
“And while I firmly believe playing — and I use the word playing because I always represent South Africa no matter where I compete — for your country is one of the biggest honours for a sportsman, I also know that it’s not as simple as people often make it seem.
“There are so many variables to consider and I think the best case scenario is where the player and country benefit mutually from the event and participation of both parties.
“It’s hard to advise anyone when you don’t have the full picture. With golf being an individual sport, each player has a point of view and makes their career decisions based on that.
“I can tell you that a sportsman won’t take a decision like this very lightly. Tennis has been part of the Olympics for a while now. Bearing that in mind, this is only the first time that golf has returned to the Olympics so it might take some time for it to really build momentum.”
Klaasen threw everything qualifying for the Rio Olympics.
The bittersweet nature of his achievement of climbing to No 9 in the world is that it came just too late at for him to achieve his Olympic goal.
He was, quite literally, just one grand slam too late.
“It was a little unlucky for me that the qualification date was at the end of the French Open, which meant I came up just short. I played some good tennis to put myself in the hunt, but ultimately it wasn’t enough. I’m disappointed at missing out on the Olympics.
“But it’s hugely satisfying to have reached this goal at Wimbledon, which I’ve had for a while now.
“So much time and effort has gone into this that I really have to sit back and take a second to reflect on what I’ve achieved. While I’m very proud of being top 10 in the world, I still have a burning desire and hunger to push even harder now, because I believe I still have more to accomplish in this sport,” said the man whose career 10 RAVEN Klaasen started playing at age six and has distinguished himself as a doubles specialist.
He has been consistently climbing the ATP Tour rankings to his current career high of ninth, achieving great success with his American partner Rajeev Ram, including victory over the dominant Bryan brothers — Bob and Mike. As a doubles player, Klaasen has won 10 titles.
His best doubles performance in a grand slam was losing the 2014 Australian Open final and making it to the semifinals of Wimbledon this year. ON THE RISE: Raven Klaassen has made it into the world top 10 in doubles and is aiming higher doubles titles and contribution to South African tennis has often not been fully recognised.
“I’ve taken a while to come into my own,” he says politely, neatly taking the spin off the subject of perhaps being unappreciated by the South African sporting public.
His manager, former South African Davis Cup player and Olympian Jeff Coetzee, believes Klaasen himself has come to a new understanding of his place in world tennis.
“Raven knows he should be in the top 10. The improvements are there. His ability to move and read the game at the net, and the work we’ve done on second and third shots the whole year has improved a lot. You can tell because guys are actually talking about it in the locker room. So I don’t see why Raven can’t be top five and higher in the world. As a team with Rajeev, I think they can definitely be in the top three in the world in the next couple of months. Now, it’s just a matter of when we get to that semifinal stage and higher that we put all of these things together. They know it. They’re going to stay hungry. It’s just a matter of time to do it over and over again in the big events.”