Game, set & match to Kgothatso Montjane

Africa’s top wheelchair tennis player Kgothatso “KG” Montjane’s tale of victory is a cocktail of perseverance, resilience, guts, and unapologetic stubbornness.

When the 2023 French Open wheelchair doubles champion entered this world on 3 June 1986 and something was different with her limbs, it is easy to envision her parents, like so many doting parents, somewhat anguished, and probably unsure of what the future would hold, concerned about how their precious little girl would navigate this world, considering the odds they knew would likely be stacked against her.  

Little more than 37 years later, the trajectory of that little girl’s life has confuted each and every dire prediction. Hailing from Seshego in Limpopo, Montjane has treated being born different — and the many “obstacles” that doctors probably rattled off to her parents — with the disdain they deserved and ensured that the details of the beginning of her life are a mere footnote to her story.  

On 10 June 2023, Montjane won the Grand Slam title at Roland-Garros alongside her Japanese partner, Yui Kamiji, in the latest of a string of honours in a remarkable career. (The other Grand Slam tournaments are the Australian Open, Wimbledon, and the US Open.) Montjane is the first South African woman to win a French Open title since 1981.

“Winning was unbelievable — it means a lot to me, because it’s every tennis player’s dream to have such an accolade under their name. Furthermore, it is really gratifying because you have to battle long and hard for it — it’s not easy to achieve. It has been a fulfilling experience, and it is great motivation for me to keep working hard,” she says.  

Long before this thrilling day in France, the beginning of Montjane’s story saw her being born with a congenital condition called amniotic band syndrome. Also known as constriction ring syndrome, this happens when fibrous bands of the amniotic sac (the lining inside the uterus) that contains the foetus) becomes tangled around a developing foetus, with the result that the baby has underdeveloped limbs at birth. In Montjane’s case, this led to an amputation at the age of 12.  

No sooner was the amputation done and dusted than the fearless Montjane took up wheelchair tennis, to which she was introduced at Helene Franz Secondary School in Borkum, Free State, which caters to children with special needs.  

Still, her sports career has been no fairy tale; there’s been no lung-bursting sprint to the top for her. To take up her place in the pantheon of pioneers in her sport, her journey has been rocky, unpredictable and, at times, disheartening.  

This year’s French Open was Montjane’s sixth appearance at a Slam in the past four years, and she has had to contend with her fair share of adversity. For instance, she was unceremoniously dumped out of the year’s first Slam, the Australian Open, by the Netherlands’ Diede de Groot with a 6-1, 6-1 loss. She’s also faced her share of injuries, and by late last year her world ranking had dropped to sixth. But she never losing sight of her ultimate goal — lifting a Grand Slam trophy.

“It takes unshakeable belief and the ability to remain disciplined, even when things are not going my way. Even though it’s hard, you cannot allow life’s difficult moments to derail your hopes and dreams,” she says. “When I became the first Black woman from South Africa to compete at Wimbledon in 2018, it was another of my long-term dreams fulfilled. I always wanted to compete on grass, but I never knew that when it happened it would be historic.”  

In the same year, she competed at the US Open and so became the first African wheelchair tennis player to qualify for all four Grand Slam tournaments in the same year. When we talk on the eve of her departure for London and I ask what she sees in her crystal ball, Montjane is quick to respond that she’s ready to take a shot at the Wimbledon title again.  

“I would love to win many more Grand Slams. I still have a lot ahead of me to achieve, so maybe one day I’ll be able to sit and look back and pick one of my proudest moments. So far, I’m just proud of every little step I’m taking,” she says.  

In terms of her hopes and dreams for the sport that has given her so much, Montjane reckons the potential in this country is immeasurable, and what is needed to take the sport forward and expand the pool of players is learning from other countries.  

“I think lot of research needs to be done on how to get the sport forward. We need to find out how other countries are making it work — maybe we can learn from that [to] help us grow the sport,” she says.  

Montjane credits her team, which does the running around behind the scenes, with the extraordinary life she has crafted on her beloved tennis courts, topped by 29 singles and many doubles titles.  

“I simply cannot ask for more. They inspire me to be the best that I can be,” she adds.  

To be named an SMag Woman of the Year, one imagines an attitude of humility and gratitude is highly prized, in addition to the specific talent that the honourees possess. And Montjane simply oozes charisma, swag, humility, and gratitude.