Tennis star ready to plow back knowledge and experience
Pretoria’s Davis Cup tennis star, Tucker Vorster, is back home and he is looking forward to a new phase in his life.
After almost a decade of touring all over the world as a professional tennis player, and playing more than 10 Davis Cup tournaments for SA, Tucker Vorster has decided to slow down.
The popular Pretoria Boys’ High alumni surprised Pretoria tennis lovers with an appearance at the Tuks Open tennis tournament a few weeks ago.
This had been one of the titles that had eluded him as a young player so he wanted to rectify. His mission was executed successfully when he beat Gerhard Swart easily in straight sets to claim the men’s singles crown.
Vorster began his career as a five-year-old when he accompanied his mother, a tennis coach, to the court in Pretoria where he hit a tennis ball for the first time.
From there Vorster’s career moved upwards and as junior he was one of SA’s most promising amateur players. After he made a name for himself on the court as a junior in various ITF tournaments, he joined the University of Mississippi on a tennis scholarship.
While studying for his degree in psychology, Vorster played College Tennis.
He still regards it today as the best route for any young player who dreams of a professional career. After he got his degree, Vorster started playing professionally.
He won his first professional title in a Futures tournament in 2013, the same year he became involved in the SA Davis Cup team. Vorster eventually won seven Futures titles, in singles and doubles.
As a doubles player he has done very well in recent years with his fellow Davis Cup star Nic Scholtz. The pair won a doubles title in a Challenger tournament in 2016.
Vorster achieved his highest place in the world rankings as a singles player in 2015 when he was counted among the top 300 players.
Today, however, he believes he would have achieved more success if he began to specialise earlier in his career as a doubles player.
In August last year he was the world’s 258th best doubles player.
Although he is still not finished as a player, Vorster is looking forward to the next phase of his career. He will tackle a few more tournaments in the next month or two, but has committed himself to become part of the exciting new plans of Tennis SA for two years.
He will work closely with Tennis SA’s progressive new CEO, Richard Glover.
Vorster believes Tennis SA has an exciting future with Glover at the helm. He also believes Glover’s plans will result in SA getting more players in the top 100 in the world over time because young stars will get better support early in their careers.
“Richard is making a difference and eventually tennis in SA will regain the trust of big sponsors,” Vorster told Rekord.
He will work with Glover on various marketing programmes of Tennis SA starting with a new beach tennis programme next month.
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