Melanie South

Melanie Jayne South (born 3 May 1986) is a former English tennis player.
She won six singles and 24 doubles titles on the ITF Circuit. On 2 February 2009, she reached her best singles ranking of world No. 99. On 9 March 2009, she peaked at No. 120 in the doubles rankings.

Her greatest success in a Grand Slam tournament came in the first round of the 2006 Wimbledon Championships when she came back from one set down to beat world No. 14, Francesca Schiavone, in a match witnessed by Martina Navratilova. At the time, South was ranked No. 305 in the world and had reached the main-draw courtesy of a wildcard. Not since the third round of the 1998 tournament, when Samantha Smith beat then-world No. 7, Conchita Martínez, had a British woman beaten an opponent of a similar ranking at Wimbledon. She lost in the second round to Shenay Perry, the world No. 62. Outside of Wimbledon, South reached the first round of the 2009 Australian Open without needing to qualify or receiving a wildcard. This was the first time in her career that her ranking was high enough to grant her access to a Grand Slam main draw without a wildcard. She lost to world No. 17 Marion Bartoli in round one.

South announced her retirement from professional tennis on 2 December 2013 in order to focus on a coaching career.

Personal life

Melanie's mother is called Sheila and her father, John, used to play professional football for Fulham (1964–66) and Brentford (1966–67). John is now a tennis coach at New Malden tennis club and Sheila was a short tennis coach. She has two brothers, Andrew and Stephen, who both used to play tennis recreationally. She began playing tennis herself at the age of six.

She attended Nonsuch High School in Cheam, South London where she gained seven GCSEs (one A* grade, four As and two Bs) and two A grades in A-level Psychology and PE as well as a grade C in A-level General Studies. She is currently furthering her education by taking an Open University course in Understanding Health which she hopes will lead onto another course in psychology.

Playing style

South's style of gameplay centred around her powerful serve and her aggressive ground strokes. She regularly served aces and got many more free points from other serves which could not be returned, which made her a difficult player to break when she played at her best. However, because her serve was so high-risk, at times she served a large number of double faults and when a couple of these come in the same game it puts her at a sizeable disadvantage. In her first round match at Wimbledon 2008 against Alona Bondarenko she served a total of ten aces, seven double faults and won 68% of the points behind her first serve. She also hit 45 winners and 48 unforced errors during this match, a statistic which demonstrates her aggressive, high-risk attitude to tennis. Renowned tennis coach Nick Bollettieri saw South play during her first round match against his charge, Michelle Larcher de Brito, at the 2008 French Open and commented: ''"She can serve well and has good ground strokes. She moves well for a big girl but you can see that lateral movement is a problem for her. Whenever she's pushed out wide she can struggle."''

Career review

Junior (1999–2004)

South debuted on the ITF Junior Circuit in June 1999. She saw very little in the way of singles success until July 2002, when she reached her first tournament quarterfinal at ''The Scottish Junior Championships''. Six months later, she won the ''17th Salik Open'' (her only singles title at junior level), and then reached the semifinals of her next tournament before losing to Anna Chakvetadze. Following this, she reached the quarterfinals of her next two tournaments. She competed in the Wimbledon girls' tournament only twice and lost in the first round each time. In singles, her career-high ranking was world No. 266, and her win–loss record was 15–8.Katie O'Brien