Meet a member: Lorna Krog, IC of South Africa

Dubbed ‘South Africa’s first lady of tennis’, Lorna Krog is considered the doyenne of South African Veterans Tennis specifically, although she has also been involved in every other section of the game, namely Juniors, Open and Wheelchair.

Over 35 years ago, Lorna was one of a group of passionate individuals who established the SA Veterans Association. Today, she can be considered as the single most influential force behind the rise of Masters tennis in South Africa. As Chairmen and committee members came and went, she remained and continued to co-ordinate all the affairs and activities, including all administration, trips and tours undertaken by the members, the selection of National teams, inter-provincial tournaments, the SA National Championships and all the other local Masters events including those on the annual calendar (12-15 per year). She was CEO of the Masters Organisation until the integration with the SA Tennis Association in 2007, this in the interests of having all tennis in the country under one umbrella body. During her tenure she was responsible for raising the sponsorship of most Masters’ National Championships, Inter-provincial tournaments and World Championships held in this country (of which she organized, co-directed and directed three).

After the Masters was integrated with the National Association, she remained employed by the Association to continue running Masters tennis in the country. However, she was also part of the Tournament Committee which staged the SA Open from 2009 to 2011 after the SA Tennis Association was awarded a three-year contract by the ATP. She was a tough but fair administrator and was (still is) immensely popular with local and international players alike.

Also In 2007, Lorna was elected to serve on the Executive of the ITF and as part of her duties, was responsible for co-ordinating various age-groups at the World Team Events which were held in Turkey, New Zealand and Austria, to name but three.

Invited to become a member of the International Club by virtue of her contribution nationally and internationally to Tennis, Lorna was also part of the IC’s organizing committee which staged the Columbus Cup at Sun City in 2000.

For 13 years, Lorna was the Match Control Manager for The Nike Junior Tour International Masters.

Match Control is a key role for the success of the tournament and her expertise in this field is world class according to the Referees with whom she has worked at these tournaments – this includes Michel Renaux, the renowned French Referee. Nike Junior events have been held in South Africa, The Bahamas, France, Spain, Italy, the USA and the Dominican Republic. 

Lorna retired in 2011, but despite her passion for her grandchildren and her rose garden, she has been brought out of retirement on numerous occasions to assist and direct events since then. She still annually runs a highly successful Ladies doubles event at Sun City and served as the Honorary President of the International Club for six years.   

Whilst Lorna’s passion has been directed largely at administration, she is also an above average player, having been a SA ranked player in her age-group nearly all her Veterans life.

IC of Italy qualify for Worldwide IC Junior Challenge Finals

The final day "play-offs" once again produced some very close matches including yet another mixed doubles decider. In the top match Italy were successful in a well fought match with Israel eventually winning 4-2 to take The European IC Rod Laver Junior Challenge with Israel in second place. But for a few points different it could have gone to a mixed doubles decider. In the match for third and fourth place Ireland won over Slovenia 4-2 but had to win two 10 point third set deciders to do that. In the match up for fifth and sixth places Great Britain won over Spain 5-1 and again with some close matches. Meanwhile the match up between hosts Germany and Austria for seventh and eighth place proved to be the closest of the day with Austria coming through in a mixed doubles decider after the overall match was tied at three individual matches each. So final placings are:

1. Italy
2. Israel
3. Ireland
4. Slovenia
5. Great Britain
6. Spain
7. Austria
8. Germany

Italy as the winning team were presented with their trophies by IC Germany President Alex Kurucz and they will be going to the Worldwide Finals in La Jolla, San Diego, California in November next year. This has probably been the most closely contested regional challenge ever. But for a few points, including some lost "match points" a different result could easily have happened. Indeed the organisers felt that if the event was repeated three times it could well be a different winner each time. So it has been a great experience for all the juniors with the round robin format giving them both a singles and doubles each day ..... and quite often a mixed doubles too this year! The unique format including both boys and girls as one team seems to be very successful and an enjoyable one both on and off court in the IC tradition of "Hands across the net, friendship across the ocean".

An enjoyable time was experienced at the final night dinner at a venue of German sponsor Rossbacher ( a manufacturer of water and soft drinks) who were thanked for their great support and were present for the evening. The event is not possible without the help of many volunteers and there were many from IC of Germany who were thanked by IC Council representative Kit Spencer for their hosting of a successful European Challenge. As well as the presentation to winning teams an important award of the IC is the Sportsmanship Awards given for exhibiting both a good attitude and friendship on and off court. These deservedly went to Johanna Halper of Austria and Mat Rutter of Great Britain. By the applause from their fellow juniors it seems they too felt they were worthy recipients. A highlight of the Final Night dinner was a Karaoke Event in which all teams performed at least one song to the amusement of both themselves and the audience. This finished up with a great finale of all teams getting together to sing "We are the world" which showed wonderful friendship between the juniors.

It is a week that the juniors will remember all their life. Many of them and their coaches expressed that it was one of their best ever tennis experiences and quite probably the best.

IC Luxembourg have already offered to host the next European Challenge in 2021 which teams will look forward too and their support is appreciated.