Khololwam Montsi has always been a dreamer. Before he had ever entered a tennis tournament, he was imagining himself winning Wimbledon. In lieu of any role models or a path trodden before them, dreams are what black African tennis players have. They are to be held on to and guarded. So when people have attempted to tread on Montsi’s aspirations, questioning whether a 5ft 5in player like him can succeed, he simply used it as further motivation.
“Me wanting to prove people wrong, I was like: ‘OK, I’m gonna do this thing and I’m gonna work hard every day. I’m gonna beat everyone that I can,’” he says. “If I lose, I lose, I go back to the drawing board. But I’m on a mission, really.”
Montsi’s ambition has already carried him far. In March, the 17-year-old cried as he won the African Junior Championships and rose to No 12 in the ITF Junior Rankings. He is now the highest ranked African junior tennis player and just a few steps below him sits Eliakim Coulibaly, an 18-year-old Ivorian. They are close friends and despite being rivals, their solidarity is touching; they call themselves African brothers. This year they became the first African players in history to simultaneously occupy the junior top 20 rankings.
South Africa is one of the most illustrious African tennis nations with a long history in the sport, but Montsi is a rare black player. Even his introduction to the sport reflects a different reality to most players before him: Years ago, a provincial team in his hometown of East London, South Africa, “needed a black player”. His older brother, Siphosothando, stepped up and he would eventually reach the top 100 in juniors, inspiring his brother in the process.
After a discussion about development quotas and the importance of being black, Montsi shrugs: “I was number one in under 12s. From the very start, I took myself as a player on merit. I never took myself as a development player, my brother never told himself he was a development player. My family never told us that. Because, I mean, what’s a ‘development player’, you know? We’re here for a reason and we’re doing what we’re doing for a reason. We’re also representing other black players and we’re not alone. So playing with the support of black people is actually a really special thing.”
After 52 years of Open era tennis, just a handful of black African tennis players have ever reached the ATP or WTA top 100. A sport where academies require a yearly investment of $60k is just not compatible with most nations across the continent and the infrastructure at recreational level is lacking; some countries have just a few dozen courts, built during the colonial period with no improvement since.
“I would say today we have 80 players in all age categories on the continent who have a [serious] tennis project,” says Amine Ben Makhlouf, ITF development officer. “If you go today to Barcelona – only Barcelona – you will find, like, 5,000. We are 80 trying to compete against thousands.”
Attempting to compete against thousands comes with its own mental barriers. Montsi smiles when asked if he has ever felt underestimated: “Obviously, these guys have seen a small kid come here with one coach, he’s from South Africa… I’m sure they were probably praying to get me in the first round.” As he started to show off his intelligence, speed and penchant for tweeners, top juniors were suddenly asking him to train with them. Coaches were impressed. “I think that’s when people were like: ‘Damn, this kid can play!’” he says. “I remember going to Japan a few weeks afterwards and there’s some girls looking at me and I’m like, ‘Ok, I’m not used to this. What’s going on?’”
After being part of the South African ATP Cup team in January, befriending his favourite player Nick Kyrgios and scouting the pros, he returned home and immediately altered his training plan. Montsi underlines the psychological impact of being able to just glimpse his idols, to be in closer proximity with his peers and to gain positive reinforcement from anyone within the sport. “For me, that’s a big thing,” he says. “Coming from Africa, you don’t really get all these things.”
Coulibaly’s own pathway into the sport reflects how anomalous his own success is. Many years ago in Abidjan, his grandfather was too poor to afford his father’s school tuition fees. Heartbroken, his father one day stumbled across people playing tennis and he instantly wanted to learn. After volunteering to pick up balls, he eventually became a coach and later taught his son. There is no army of Ivorian juniors in Coulibaly’s wake.
Last year was the first time that Coulibaly had ever departed Africa. He arrived in Italy for a series of tournaments and was initially awed by his new surroundings and new rivals. Coulibaly is a tall lefty described by Montsi as a “machine”, but he felt small. He found himself focusing on his wealthier opponents and he questioned his own ability. “I was amazed. It was a new world for me,” he says. “When I saw someone playing, I was so scared. I’m like, ‘Oh my god, he’s so good.’ I was always putting myself down. Even if I saw someone I know I can beat, I always told myself: ‘No, he’s much better than you.’”
Although some were kind to him, Coulibaly heard people laughing at him. He supposed it was because he came from Africa and how he stood out among his rivals in their spotless sponsored outfits. He did not allow it to fracture his spirit: “It didn’t make me doubt myself because I was like, ‘Eliakim, if you came here it is to show who you are, to fight for what you’ve got.’ I didn’t mind if they had sponsors. I was thinking it’s also good for them. If they have, why can’t I have?” By the end of his first trip outside of Africa, he had a top 20 win and his first small sponsors.
Both players receive some financial help. Montsi obtained a $25k grant from the ITF Grand Slam development fund while Coulibaly trains at the ITF High Performance Tennis Centre in Morocco, where many of the best, scattered talents across the continent congregate to train, study and live together. Their funding may not compare to their rivals, but their tennis does. “I’m really proud of myself,” says Coulibaly. “I’m really proud of the continent where I am from. If you’re coming from Africa and you can make it to the top, that means you are not someone with a small mindset. You know what you want. You’re someone big.”
Thinking about how far they have come always takes Montsi back to four years ago when he and Coulibaly were sitting together in a hotel room in Tunisia. They imagined a future where they played doubles together at all the grand slams as they racked up titles and the world called them ‘the African brothers’. Their success has reinforced that they were right to dream. It has emboldened them to aspire for even more.
“Now we look and we’re like, ‘Dude, do you realise we’re top 20?’ says Montsi. “Back then, we weren’t even top 200. I always told him that we should just believe. It’s one of the biggest things that we have.”