While tennis – and specifically the Australian Open – has made headlines worldwide in the past week for all the wrong reasons before the 2022 version of the tournament could even start, a very important date for South African tennis lovers has almost gone unnoticed.

On 3 January this year it was exactly 40 years ago that South Africa’s Johan Kriek won his first of two Australian Open men’s singles titles. This achievement of Kriek, an alumnus of Afrikaans Hoër Seunskool (Affies) in Pretoria, was unique in more ways than one.

First of all, he became the first (and still only) South African ever to win a Grand Slam singles title.

The second unique aspect was that, although he won the match on January 3, 1982, it was actually the final of the 1981 tournament that could only be played on that date due to delays caused by weather conditions.

Then, thirdly, this victory was unique due to the fact that he won his second Grand Slam title – the 1982 Australian men’s singles championship – about 12 months later on December 13 in the same calendar year.

Kriek was therefore the first and only player ever to win two Grand Slam titles from the same tournament in one calendar year.

Five years later, in 1987, the tournament’s presentation date was changed from December to early January. This meant that no Australian Open was hosted in 1986. Kriek’s victory was in the era when the Australian Open, just like Wimbledon in London, was still played on grass surface. In 1988, however, the tournament was moved to Flinders Park (later renamed Melbourne Park) and since then it has been played on hard surface courts.

Rekord recently tracked down Kriek where he currently resides in Palm Beach in the American state of Florida and spoke to him via Zoom about his career and that highlight of 1982, when he, as a 23-year-old “Boerseun” from Pretoria, had the tennis world at his feet in difficult years drenched with political turmoil.

Kriek grew up on a sugar farm in the Pongola district in Northern Natal. He grew up as a young boy among Zulu workers and his friends on the farm were the children of the workers. Therefore, at a very young age, he could speak Zulu fluently.

He was introduced to tennis by his parents, who played the sport at club level, and although he also excelled as an athlete and rugby player, the tennis bug bit early.

After being spotted by a talent scout, he received a scholarship to move to Affies in Pretoria so that he could be coached by top coach, Ian Cunningham.

At 15, Kriek had already decided that he wanted to become a professional tennis player and when his coach left the country to work in Austria, he also travelled there at the end of his standard 9 (grade 11) year to take part in a tournament. After doing exceptionally well in this tournament, he decided there and then not to return to South Africa to finish his school career, but to start playing professionally in tournaments all over Europe.

In Austria, in addition to Afrikaans, English and Zulu, he also learned to speak German, which made him fluent in four languages.

In February 1978, he travelled to America for the first time in his life, where, as the world’s 900th best player, he wanted to improve his rankings and try to make money. After his first series of tournaments, he did so well that by July 1978 his ranking improved into the top 250 in the world and he was able to qualify for the US Open.

At that tournament, Kriek introduced himself to the tennis world when he reached the quarterfinals as an unknown, unseeded player, where he was eventually eliminated by the fourth seeded Vitas Gerulaitis.

The rest is, as they say, history. In his professional career that spanned 17 years, Kriek eventually won 16 singles, and 8 doubles titles, including the two Australian Open victories.

In 1980 he reached the semi-finals of the US Open, while in 1981 and 1982 he also advanced to the quarterfinals of Wimbledon. His best performance at the French Open was the semi-finals in 1986. In 1984, he achieved his best ranking place ever when he was ranked as the world’s seventh best player. To keep perspective, one must realize that it was in the era when men like John McEnroe, Ivan Lendl, Jimmy Connors, Mats Wilander, Pat Cash, Stefan Edberg, Yannick Noah and Vitas Gerulaitis all counted in the top 10.

In addition, Kriek was a bit of an anomaly in tennis, due to the fact that with his height of 1.75 m (5 ft 9 in) he was actually considered “too short” to be a top tennis player. However, he was very athletic and lightning fast on the track, as well as exceptionally strong. By using these two aspects to his advantage, Kriek outwitted many taller opponents who underestimated him.

Despite all this success, Kriek today admits that his most satisfying and probably most emotional victory ever in a tournament was when he won the SA Open in 1983.

“Remember, I was crucified in the media in South Africa because I accepted American citizenship for the sake of my tennis career. I was branded as a traitor and a coward who evaded military service. Even my family was treated very harshly by tennis administrators. In those days the SA Open was still a big tournament on the world calendar, so it was a huge achievement for me when I could be crowned SA Open champion,” Kriek told Rekord.

Kriek still lives in Florida in America today and he is married to Daga, who was born in Poland and was also a top tennis player in Europe. The couple has two children, Karolina and Kristian.

The 63-year-old Kriek and his wife run a tennis academy in Palm Beach Gardens, while he also has several other business interests across America.

However, he still has contact with his family and friends in South Africa and hopes to be able to show his homeland to his family in June this year, if the Covid crisis allows it. He was invited to attend a reunion in Pongola and is very much looking forward to that possible visit.

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