KGOTHATSO MONTJANE

ROLE: Wheelchair tennis player

Having just returned from featuring at two Wimbledon finals, 35-year-old Kgothatso Montjane remains SA’s Number 1 and an instrumental player in the South African wheelchair tennis scene. She has established herself as an anchor player and a national key point leading the SA team to the Invacare World Team Cups in Kenya and Israel as a player/captain and assisted the team to obtain a top four finish for the first time at an international World Team Cup event. Kgothatso started playing tennis at the age of 20 whilst studying at Helen Franz School in her home province of Limpopo. She went on to study for a BSC degree in Recreation and Leisure whilst pursuing prospects of a full- time career in tennis.

Her accolades are impressive: she is the first African woman to play at the Wimbledon Championships, Paralympics in Rio in 2016, London in 2012, Beijing in 2008 – and at the NEC Wheelchair Tennis Masters in 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, and 2019.

She is also the first African to compete at all four grand slams in one calendar year in 2019 doubles finalist at the 2019 US open.

She was awarded the Sportswoman of the Year with a Disability in Gauteng in 2013, 2014, 2015 and 2019, as well as the Sportswoman of the Year with a Disability at the gsports Spar Awards (2013, 2016, 2019 and 2020), and Glamour magazine Sports Personality Award (2018).

Kgothatso currently practices at the University of Pretoria at the High Performance Centre and also runs the Montjane Sports Development NGO, which seeks to establish sporting facilities in rural areas for the disadvantaged.

Her own personal aspiration is to win a grand slam and reach the top of the three world tennis rankings.