Whatever happened to…Byron Black?

The routine included hundreds of serves, reflex volleys against the wall, ground stroke drills, push-ups and sit-ups – and that was just before school. At 14:00, there were more drills and then match practice.

I did that every day until I left Zimbabwe at 16 years old. It was a very serious routine. My old man would sit in a deckchair and watch us or feed us balls. Everything was a competition,” Byron says.

The practice clearly paid off as he went on to win 22 doubles titles on the ATP tour including the French Open and two Australian Opens. He also boasts two ATP singles tour wins and reached the quarter-finals of both the US Open and Wimbledon grand slams – achievements very few tennis professionals can speak of.

Now…
He now lives in White River with his family and farms granadillas with his business partner, Rob Kay. Farming, as well as tennis, runs in the family, it seems. Byron’s former avo-farming father played Wimbledon in the late 1950s and would travel with his bush babies to Europe.

Both of Byron’s siblings – Wayne and Cara – went on to have incredibly successful years on the professional tennis circuit.

For him, it must be almost surreal to reminisce about some of his greatest tennis clashes and the masters of the game he played against. It certainly took a lot of hard work for him to make the pro tour.

Then…
“My first big tournament was when I was 13 and I travelled to Florida by myself. It took about four flights and it was all a little scary. I played Andre Agassi, he was 12, in the third round of the Orange Bowl u/14 tournament,” he says.

All the best u/14 kids were there from around the world. I was a little intimidated as Agassi arrived with 10 brand-new Prince Graphite racquets and I had two racquets that weren’t even the same make!”

The tournament that really kicked off his junior and senior career was in the Ivory Coast.

“My dad was pretty tight with his money and did not want to pay the expensive airfare. My mom took all her tennis coaching savings and bought me the ticket that may have changed my life,” he explains.

“I was 15 and again travelled by myself via several countries to Abidjan and played in the u/18 All Africa Junior Championships. I arrived at the airport without the correct visa and was put in a small jail cell at the airport until some guys from the tournament got me released for the week.”

He ended up winning the whole event and was invited for an eight-week all-expenses-paid junior tour of Europe. As they say, the rest is history.
After being offered a scholarship at John Newcombe’s Tennis Academy in Texas, and a very successful four years at the University of Southern California, Byron was well on his way to making a name for himself.

The Davis Cup
Although he is very proud of his singles and doubles achievements, it is his Davis Cup achievements with the Zimbabwean team which remain the most memorable.

“All the older Zim players were unavailable because they were at universities in America as well. I surprised everyone by beating two guys in the top 100 in the world,” Byron says.

My brother and I basically were the team from 1991 to 2000 and we went from the African zone into the World Group beating Australia in Australia on grass. What a lot a little country like Zim achieved. Players were scared to come and play us at home because the noise in the stadium was deafening. We had Ivanicevic, Rosset, McEnroe and Agassi coming to play in Harare.”

Doubles was always Byron’s strength and he remembers his biggest win in 1994 at the French Open with Jonathon Stark as his partner.

“We had an amazing run of tournaments taking me to number one in the world. It was something I never dreamed of!”

The Zimbabwean dream
Byron and his wife Fiona always had the intention to return to Zimbabwe. They built a thatched house on a hill in Harare near his parents’ house and moved home in 2002.

“My dream was to always return because I left when I was 16 and missed out on Kariba, Zambezi River, the wildlife and all the things that I really would have loved to do,” Byron says.

But the country was going through land invasions and hyper-inflation, you could not get fuel or cash money and our middle child was with some complications. It was with a very heavy heart that we left and came to White River, but Fiona’s family joined us and we have been here 13 years now. We could not be happier.”

Byron’s two sons enjoy their tennis and Wayne coaches on the same courts their father built all those years ago in Harare. Cara will play the senior event with legend Martina Navratilova at Wimbledon this year.

Tennis remains in the family, as it should.