Mariaan de Swardt

South Africa’s Mariaan de Swardt won two Grand Slam titles during her professional tennis career, which spanned from 1988 to 2001. De Swardt achieved a career-best singles ranking of #28 in the world in April 1996, and a doubles ranking of #11 in the world in October 1998. She played on South Africa’s Fed Cup team from 1992 to 2000.

On the ITF Circuit De Swardt won nine singles titles and seven doubles titles from December 1986 to August 1998. On the WTA Tour she won four doubles titles, with her first victory coming in May 1995 in Bournemouth, England, with Ruxandra Dragomir as her partner. De Swardt only won one WTA singles title in her career, beating Barbara Schett to win the 1998 Boston Cup.

At Grand Slams De Swardt never progressed past the fourth round in the singles but she did have better success in the doubles. In 1999 she and Olena Tatarkova finished as runners-up to the American pair of Lindsay Davenport and Corina Morariu in the final at Wimbledon. De Swardt had a partnership with compatriot David Adams, which saw the duo win the mixed doubles titles at the 1999 Australian Open and the 2000 French Open.

De Swardt competed in the singles and doubles at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics and the 1996 Atlanta Olympics. Her best performance came in the doubles in Barcelona where she and Elna Reinach reached the quarter-finals, where they lost to the eventual gold medallists Mary Joe Fernandez and Gigi Fernandez.