South Africa’s Donald Ramphadi is scaling the World Wheelchair Tennis Rankings – Now 17th – and headed to the Australian Open 2022!
Melbourne, Australia (19 January 2022) – South African wheelchair tennis player Donald Ramphadi has moved up a spot to 17th position on the International Tennis Federation (ITF) world rankings following his participation at the Victoria Open earlier this month – during his ongoing Australia tour.
The Limpopo-born rising star is expected to climb even higher up the rankings following his semi-final birth at another Aussie tournament over the weekend – the Melbourne Open – after he convincingly defeated the fourth-seeded and former world number one opponent, David Wagner. This was the third time Ramphadi beat the American.
The 28-year old Ramphadi also made it as far as the semi-finals of the doubles at the Melbourne Open.
The Grand Slam
From this coming Sunday, Ramphadi will feature at the first of this year’s four grand slams of the year – the Australian Open 2022 – as a wildcard entry and one of only two South Africans at the event. He stated that he is ready to make his mark on the world’s biggest stage and to make the country proud.
Ramphadi will vie for the singles and doubles titles at Melbourne Park from 23-27 January.
“I will be competing with the top 7 ranked players in the world, so I know there won’t be easy matches,” he said.
Challenges Down-Under
He has been flying solo throughout his tour ‘down under’ as his entire support staff and coaches were unable to travel with him due to a lack of sponsorship. Despite this potential psychological hamstring, he still managed to cause real upsets, and Ramphadi has continued to mark the spot as one to watch for the future of tennis in South Africa.
“I have learnt that every challenge is a driver of success and prosperity; however, patience is the determinant of the two”.
On the technical side, Ramphadi is looking to overhaul his wheelchair by acquiring a state-of-the-art one; however, this is highly dependent on elusive financial assistance to make it happen.
His current wheelchair is outdated and has posed a challenge towards reaching his full potential against mostly Western opponents who are fully geared with modern high tech equipment.
“Sponsorship and assistance goes a long way in ensuring that the quest to be the best in the world is attained; I would like to call on corporates and government to support me in this journey”, he said.
But Donald Ramphadi has vowed to not let this get in the way of his title hopes at the AO2022 – and in pursuit of continuing to scale the world rankings.
by 