Rising SA tennis talents Connor Doig and Jahnie van Zyl aim for Roland Garros success

Two of South Africa’s rising junior tennis stars have had to find feet of clay after they made it into the qualifying draw for the prestigious Roland Garros Junior Championships in Paris later this month.

Connor Doig, the 17-year-old Grade 11 pupil from Durban, made it into the junior boys section, while Jahnie van Zyl, the 16-year-old from Potchefstroom, is in the girls section.

Both players spoke exclusively to Independent Media on the milestone achievement in the budding careers.

The tournament will be held between May 29 and June 7 in Paris, in conjunction with the French Open, the second Grand Slam tournament of the year.

Connor will be eager to put up a strong fight against the world’s rising tennis stars in the boys competition at Roland Garros.

“It’s a great honour to play Roland Garros Junior qualifiers. The end goal is to qualify for the main draw and play the real thing,” he said.

The teen, lying 68th in the ITF junior boys rankings, has showcased his potential in recent years by winning five junior titles (four singles and one doubles).

At the Australian Open Junior Championships earlier this season, Connor reached the round of 64 in singles and the round of 32 in doubles, and he will hope to build on that momentum in Paris.

“I won three matches in qualifying and lost in the first round of the Australian Open. But that was an amazing experience,” he said.

Jahnie, the top South African girl in the TSA Under-16 combined rankings, is currently 151st in the ITF junior girls rankings.

She will be making her maiden appearance at a Grand Slam, but is buoyed by her recent participation in the Billie Jean King Cup team tournament in Cyprus.

“We gained a lot of experience in Cyprus, and I’m really grateful for the opportunity that the whole team had there,” she said.

“We played really good players who all had experience, and I think we learnt so much from all those players.

“I was really happy to reach the French Open Juniors qualifiers.

“I realised all the sacrifices that I’ve made, it wasn’t for nothing, and that there’s more to come.

“I was really happy and proud of myself, but I was also motivated to do more and do better and play more tournaments.”

Jahnie at least has the benefit of playing on the only real clay courts in South Africa, at home in Potchefstroom.

Connor had to prepare on a synthetic clay court in Durban.

“From a young age, we sent Jahnie out to different tournaments in Europe to get a feel for different surfaces in Europe,” he said.

“And having the clay courts in Potchefstroom for the past few years has made her comfortable, taught her how to play and how to move.”

He said the young star’s ranking was not a fair indication of her level, as it was affected by a recent injury absence, and backed Jahnie to cause a stir in Paris.

Former Westville Boys’ High pupil Connor, who is now taking online classes, admits that it is a challenge getting used to the surface after playing mostly on hard courts in South Africa.

“I’ve tried to get to Europe a bit in advance for preparation on the real surface, but I’ll be 100% used to clay by the time Roland Garros comes around, because I’ve already been in Europe for the last three weeks, playing tournaments and practising basically the whole time on clay.”

And he has the opportunity to test his skills on clay against players who play regularly on the surface when he takes part in a Grade 1 tournament in Belgium that could offer a back door into the main draw at Roland Garros.

Even if he doesn’t make it into the draw through that tournament, Connor won’t give up on his Grand Slam dream easily.

“I’m looking forward to Roland Garros. I’m just going to take it match by match, point by point and fight for every point and do my best,” he said.

Meanwhile, South Africa’s wheelchair tennis stars Kgothatso Montjane and Donald Ramphadi – both previous doubles champions at the clay-court Grand Slam – will compete in the Roland Garros wheelchair main draw, continuing their impressive careers on one of tennis’ biggest stages.