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.

Mexico win the North American IC Rod Laver Junior Challenge

It was close on the third day after both Mexico and The USA had wins over The Bahamas and Barbados on the first two days.   So it was all to play for on day three.  Mexico got a good start winning both boys singles but The USA levelled it at 2-2 by winning the two girls singles.  In the doubles the Mexican boys again came through meaning the girls doubles was now critical.   This time the Mexican girls were able to reverse their two losses in the singles to come through in the doubles giving Mexico a 4-2 victory and a place in The Worldwide Finals at La Jolla, California. This will be 8th - 14th November 2020 where we are hoping Rod Laver will be able to attend.   The USA who had fought a good match were disappointed but do have the consolation that as the hosts for The Worldwide Finals they will also have a place in that.  These two teams will be joined by the winners of the other regional events which are:  Japan, Italy, Argentina and South Africa.

In the match for 3rd and fourth place between Barbados and host Bahamas it was even closer than the match to win this regional event.  In Boys singles The Bahamas won both matches followed also by the doubles while in the girls matches Barbados came through in all three matches to level the tie at 3 matches each by winning both singles and doubles.  So it was a mixed tie break to decide the winner.  The Bahamas went in to a 3-0 lead but Barbados rallied to come back and win to get third place.

During the event an excellent clinic was held for 25 kids who lost their homes in Northern Bahama islands during Hurricane Dorian and are living in temporary accommodation in the main island in Nassau, New Providence.   All the juniors and their coaches joined in to help with this under the guidance of Perry Newton head of BLTA Junior Development .  The junior players were split in to four groups under the guidance of a main coach with a boy and girl junior from all the different nationality teams in each group. This helped them to  mix and get to know each other better too. The hurricane kids were rotated through each group with different drills ending up combining in to two groups for a “tennis contest” on a real court of volleying with soft balls.  All the kids were given a small something to take away plus a tennis ball to help continue their interest.

Overall the event went off well and the sportsmanship was good throughout helped by the coaches/captains setting a good example and talking to their teams about this.  The IC philosophy of “hands across the net, friendship across the ocean” was well evident and the juniors not only had a great tennis experience but made good friends as the event progressed.

Sportsmanship awards went to Chloe Weeks of Barbados and Denali Nottage of The Bahamas and there were many other deserving candidates.

The two teams of Barbados and Mexico who stayed overnight were taken on a sail boat trip up Nassau Harbour by one of our IC members  after matches on the third day. This was followed by “Chinese and Ice Cream cake” at another IC Members home overlooking the dock where the boat is moored.  All in good IC spirit of friendship.