John-Laffnie de Jager

John-Laffnie de Jager

Country (sports)	South Africa
Residence	Ermelo, Transvaal, South Africa
Born	(1973-03-17) 17 March 1973 (age 51) Johannesburg, South Africa
Height	1.93 m (6 ft 4 in)
Turned pro	1992
Retired	2003
Plays	Right-handed
Prize money	$1,357,700
Singles
Career record	0–3
Career titles	0 0 Challenger, 0 Futures
Highest ranking	No. 313 (12 October 1992)
Grand Slam singles results
Australian Open	Q1 (1993)
Wimbledon	1R (1992)
US Open	Q2 (1992)
Doubles
Career record	246–258
Career titles	7 7 Challenger, 0 Futures
Highest ranking	No. 11 (31 July 2000)
Grand Slam doubles results
Australian Open	SF (1993)
French Open	2R (1993, 1998)
Wimbledon	SF (2000)
US Open	SF (1998, 2001)
Other doubles tournaments
Tour Finals	RR (1999)
Olympic Games	SF – 4th (2000)
Grand Slam mixed doubles results
Australian Open	F (1997)
French Open	F (1995)
Wimbledon	QF (1997, 2000)
US Open	SF (1994)
Last updated on: 24 November 2021.

John-Laffnie de Jager (born 17 March 1973) is a South African former tour professional tennis player. A doubles specialist, de Jager reached the semi-finals for three different grand slam tournaments three times in three different years partnering three different fellow South African players. de Jager is the current non-playing captain of the South Africa Davis Cup team.

Career

A native of Ermelo, de Jager turned professional in 1992 during which year he played his only tour singles. He won two of five matches he played on the challenger circuit and reached through qualifying the main draw at Wimbledon, where he lost in the first round to future champion Richard Krajicek, 7–5 6–1 6–2. He played but one other event in singles, a challenger in Dublin in October, before focusing his tennis exclusively on doubles. His career high singles ranking stood at World No. 313, reached in October.

De Jager won back-to-back challenger events in doubles in September 1991, partnering compatriots, in Madeira partnering Byron Talbot and in Jerusalem with Christo van Rensburg. He played some half dozen times with Van Rensburg in 1991-2 and some dozen times, but with limited success, with Johan de Beer. He won two more challenger events the following year, in June partnering Zimbabwean Byron Black and in November with Capetonian Marius Barnard. 1993 saw de Jager reach his first of three grand slam semis, in partnership with yet another South African, Marcos Ondruska. Together they reached the second round at the Roland Garros and the third round at Wimbledon. In October, de Jager reached his first Grand Prix event final, in Lyon partnering still another South African and Capetonian, Stefan Kruger.

1994 saw de Jager reach four grand prix semi-finals, with three different partners (all southern Africans), another final and capture his first grand prix win, in Tel Aviv partnering still another compatriot, Pietermaritzburg native Lan Bale. Aside from a few occasions, most notable of which was a four tournament stint where he partnered Aussie doubles master John Fitzgerald, de Jager and Bale remained a team into 1995. Together they reached the Stuttgart Indoor, Munich, and Italian Open grand prix, but faltered at the French where they went out in the first round. After a third round exit at Wimbledon, and first round exit at Flushing Meadows, the partnership was dissolved in September. The change worked immediately for de Jager as he won his very next tournament, the Toulouse Grand Prix, partnering Swede Jonas Björkman. He again had success in Lyon, reaching the final with star compatriot Wayne Ferreira. Beginning 1996 playing mostly with Gary Muller, de Jager played the late spring and summer with some 10 different partners and without reaching a single event final. His misfortune got worse in the first of half of 1997, where a string of first round loses saw his doubles ranking fall from No. 53 in September 1996 to No. 164 by August 1997. A new partnership with yet another compatriot, this time Robbie Koenig saw de Jager recover his form, with a quarterfinal result at the U.S. Open followed by winning a challenger event and reaching the finals of another. Then with Pretoria's Chris Haggard, he won the following two challengers as well.

De Jager began 1998 partnering Koenig, reaching the semis of the Sydney Outdoor, the third round of the Australian Open, and the second round or better of every tournament but one through Roland Garros, where they reached the third round. Their success continued throughout the summer, culminating in but only de Jager's second grand slam semis appearance, at the 1998 U.S. Open. During the autumn de Jager partnership altered between the one of him and Koenig and a newer one, with yet another South African, David Adams. De Jager played exclusively with Adams for 1999 and the tandem met with success in reaching the finals or better six times in International Series events. This led to their competing in the ATP Doubles Championship, where they lost in the round robin however. The duo had an even year 2000 nevertheless winning back-to-back in February, in Rotterdam and London, in Munich in May, and reaching the semi-finals of Wimbledon. At the Sydney Olympics, they again finished as semi-finalists, for de Jager, for the third and final time. He achieved his career high ranking in doubles at the end of July, at World No. 11.

He reached two Grand Slam finals in mixed doubles. In 1995 he reached the final of the French Open with Jill Hetherington but they lost 6–7 6–7 to Larisa Neiland and Todd Woodbridge. In 1997 he partnered Larisa Neiland to reach the final of the Australian Open, but they lost 3–6, 7–6, 5–7 to Manon Bollegraf and Rick Leach.

Junior Grand Slam finals

Doubles: 3 (1 title, 2 runner-ups)

Result	Year	Tournament	Surface	Partnet	Opponents	Score
Loss	1989	Wimbledon	Grass	Wayne Ferreira	Jared Palmer Jonathan Stark	6–7(4–7), 6–7(2–7)
Loss	1991	Wimbledon	Grass	Andrei Medvedev	Karim Alami Greg Rusedski	6–1, 6–7(4–7), 4–6
Win	1991	US Open	Hard	Karim Alami	Michael Joyce Vince Spadea	6–4, 6–7, 6–1

Major finals

Grand Slam finals

Mixed doubles: 2 (2 runners-up)

Result	Year	Championship	Surface	Partner	Opponents	Score
Loss	1995	French Open	Clay	Jill Hetherington	Larisa Savchenko Neiland Todd Woodbridge	6–7(8–10), 6–7(4–7)
Loss	1997	Australian Open	Hard	Larisa Savchenko Neiland	Manon Bollegraf Rick Leach	3–6, 7–6(7–5), 5–7

Olympic finals

Doubles: 1

Outcome	Year	Championship	Partner	Opponents	Score
4th place	2000	Sydney	David Adams	Àlex Corretja Albert Costa	6–2, 4–6, 3–6

ATP career finals

Doubles: 19 (7 titles, 12 runner-ups)

Result	W–L	Date	Tournament	Tier	Surface	Partner	Opponents	Score
Win	1–0	Nov 1992	Moscow, Russia	World Series	Carpet	Marius Barnard	David Adams Andrei Olhovskiy	6–4, 3–6, 7–6
Loss	1–1	Oct 1993	Lyon, France	World Series	Carpet	Stefan Kruger	Gary Muller Danie Visser	3–6, 6–7
Loss	1–2	Oct 1994	Basel, Switzerland	World Series	Hard	Lan Bale	Jared Palmer Patrick McEnroe	3–6, 6–7
Win	2–2	Oct 1994	Tel Aviv, Israel	World Series	Hard	Lan Bale	Jan Apell Jonas Björkman	6–7, 6–2, 7–6
Win	3–2	Oct 1995	Toulouse, France	World Series	Hard	Jonas Björkman	Dave Randall Greg Van Emburgh	7–6, 7–6
Loss	3–3	Oct 1995	Lyon, France	World Series	Carpet	Wayne Ferreira	Jakob Hlasek Yevgeny Kafelnikov	3–6, 3–6
Loss	3–4	Jun 1998	Halle, Germany	World Series	Grass	Marc-Kevin Goellner	Ellis Ferreira Rick Leach	6–4, 4–6, 6–7
Loss	3–5	Oct 1998	Vienna, Austria	Championship Series	Carpet	David Adams	Yevgeny Kafelnikov Daniel Vacek	5–7, 3–6
Loss	3–6	Feb 1999	Dubai, United Arab Emirates	World Series	Hard	David Adams	Wayne Black Sandon Stolle	6–4, 1–6, 4–6
Win	4–6	Feb 1999	Rotterdam, Netherlands	Championship Series	Carpet	David Adams	Neil Broad Peter Tramacchi	6–7, 6–3, 6–4
Loss	4–7	May 1999	Rome, Italy	Masters Series	Clay	David Adams	Ellis Ferreira Rick Leach	7–6, 1–6, 2–6
Loss	4–8	Aug 1999	Washington, United States	Championship Series	Hard	David Adams	Justin Gimelstob Sébastien Lareau	5–7, 7–6, 3–6
Loss	4–9	Oct 1999	Toulouse, France	World Series	Carpet	David Adams	Olivier Delaître Jeff Tarango	6–3, 6–7, 4–6
Loss	4–10	Oct 1999	Stuttgart, Germany	Masters Series	Hard	David Adams	Byron Black Jonas Björkman	7–6, 6–7, 0–6
Win	5–10	Feb 2000	Rotterdam, Netherlands	Championship Series	Hard	David Adams	Tim Henman Yevgeny Kafelnikov	5–7, 6–2, 6–3
Win	6–10	Feb 2000	London, United Kingdom	Championship Series	Hard	David Adams	Jan-Michael Gambill Scott Humphries	6–3, 6–7(7–9), 7–6(13–11)
Win	7–10	May 2000	Munich, Germany	International Series	Clay	David Adams	Max Mirnyi Nenad Zimonjić	6–4, 6–4
Loss	7–11	Sep 2001	Shanghai, China	International Series	Hard	Robbie Koenig	Byron Black Thomas Shimada	2–6, 6–3, 5–7
Loss	7–12	Mar 2002	San Jose, United States	International Series	Hard	Robbie Koenig	Wayne Black Kevin Ullyett	3–6, 6–4, [5–10]

ATP Challenger and ITF Futures finals

Doubles: 9 (7–2)

Result	W–L	Date	Tournament	Tier	Surface	Partner	Opponents	Score
Loss	0–1	Jul 1991	Newcastle, United Kingdom	Challenger	Grass	Christo van Rensburg	Nicholas Fulwood Peter Nyborg	6–7, 1–6
Win	1–1	Sep 1991	Madeira, Portugal	Challenger	Hard	Byron Talbot	Byron Black T. J. Middleton	2–6, 7–6, 6–4
Win	2–1	Oct 1991	Jerusalem, Israel	Challenger	Hard	Christo van Rensburg	Nduka Odizor Bryan Shelton	6–2, 6–4
Win	3–1	Jun 1992	Turin, Italy	Challenger	Clay	Byron Black	T. J. Middleton Ted Scherman	6–4, 6–2
Win	4–1	Oct 1997	Sedona, United States	Challenger	Hard	Robbie Koenig	Adam Peterson Eric Taino	6–2, 6–2
Loss	4–2	Oct 1997	Brest, France	Challenger	Hard	Robbie Koenig	Dave Randall Jack Waite	6–3, 6–7, 4–6
Win	5–2	Nov 1997	Aachen, Germany	Challenger	Hard	Chris Haggard	Dave Randall Jack Waite	3–6, 6–1, 7–6
Win	6–2	Nov 1997	Neumünster, Germany	Challenger	Carpet	Chris Haggard	Lars Burgsmüller Markus Hantschk	6–3, 6–1
Win	7–2	Aug 2001	Lexington, United States	Challenger	Hard	Robbie Koenig	Paul Kilderry Jack Waite	7–6(7–1), 7–5

Performance timelines

Doubles

Mixed doubles

External links

• John-Laffnie de Jager at the Association of Tennis Professionals
• John-Laffnie de Jager at the International Tennis Federation
• John-Laffnie de Jager at the Davis Cup