The Limpopo-born athlete was the first African wheelchair tennis player to compete at Wimbledon when she was handed a wild card for the Wimbledon Grand Slam tournament in London in 2018.
JOHANNESBURG – South Africa’s wheelchair ace Kgothatso ‘KG’ Montjane has advanced to the finals of the women’s singles and doubles at Wimbledon.
Earlier on Friday, she made history by becoming South Africa’s first black woman to reach a Wimbledon singles final.
The 35-year-old took down Japan’s Momoko Ohtani in the semifinal round at Wimbledon, beating her opponent 7-6(3), 4-6, 6-4 to reach her first Wimbledon singles final.
Montjane will face top seed and world number one, the Netherlands’ Diede de Groot, in Saturday’s final.
In her second match for the day, Montjane and her partner Lucy Shuker beat the De Groot and her compatriot Aniek Van Koot, 6-3, 3-6, 7-5.
Montjane and Shuker will face Japan’s Yuji Kamiji and Britain’s Jordanne Whiley in the final.
The Limpopo-born athlete was the first African wheelchair tennis player to compete at Wimbledon when she was handed a wild card for the Wimbledon Grand Slam tournament in London, United Kingdom, in 2018.
On Thursday, the tennis player went through to the Wimbledon semifinal for the third time in her career.
She’s ranked 5th globally and number one in Africa and is currently up for another Momentum gsport award in the Athlete with Disability category.
Montjane competed at her first Paralympics in Beijing (2008), then London and Rio de Janeiro. In 2018, she became the first African wheelchair tennis player to compete in the Australian Open, the French Open, Wimbledon and the US Open in the same calendar year.
Montjane was born with a congenital birth defect and went through a single amputation below the knee when she was just 12 years old.
Source: EWN
