Natal Championships | |
---|---|
Defunct tennis tournament | |
Founded | 1884 |
Abolished | 1976 (men) 2005 (women) |
Editions | 93 (men) 121 (women) |
Location | Pietermaritzburg or Durban or Umhlali KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa |
Surface | outdoor (Grass), later outdoor (hard) |
The Natal Championships later known as the Natal Open or Natal Open Championships was a men's and women's grass court tennis tournament held at Pietermaritzburg or Durban, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa 1884 through 2005. [1]
The Natal Championships were founded in 1884 and first staged Pietermaritzburg, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. [2] In 1885 it was then first staged at Durban then tournament alternated between both locations. In 1968 at the start of the Open era in tennis its title changed to the Natal Open for men which was the ATP Event and the Natal Open Championships for women which was a WTA Event in 1968. [3] [4] The event was staged at Umhlali during the final four years of the women's event. In later years the tournament had switched to hard courts. The event was usually run between the middle 2 weeks of July each year.
KwaZulu-Natal is a province of South Africa that was created in 1994 when the Zulu bantustan of KwaZulu and Natal Province were merged. It is located in the southeast of the country, with a long shoreline on the Indian Ocean and sharing borders with three other provinces and the countries of Mozambique, Eswatini and Lesotho. Its capital is Pietermaritzburg, and its largest city is Durban. It is the second-most populous province in South Africa, with slightly fewer residents than Gauteng.
Pietermaritzburg is the capital and second-largest city in the province of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. It was founded in 1838 and is currently governed by the Msunduzi Local Municipality. Its Zulu name umGungundlovu is the name used for the district municipality. Pietermaritzburg is popularly called Maritzburg in Afrikaans, English and Zulu alike, and often informally abbreviated to PMB. It is a regionally important industrial hub, producing aluminium, timber and dairy products, as well as the main economic hub of Umgungundlovu District Municipality. The public sector is a major employer in the city due to local, district and provincial governments located here.
The International Tennis Federation (ITF) is the governing body of world tennis, wheelchair tennis, and beach tennis. It was founded in 1913 as the International Lawn Tennis Federation by twelve national tennis associations. As of 2016, there are 211 national and six regional associations that make up ITF's membership.
The University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN) is a university with five campuses in the province of KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa. It was formed on 1 January 2004 after the merger between the University of Natal and the University of Durban-Westville.
Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife is a governmental organisation responsible for maintaining wildlife conservation areas and biodiversity in KwaZulu-Natal Province, South Africa. Their headquarters is in Queen Elizabeth Park situated on the northern slopes of Pietermaritzburg, the KwaZulu-Natal provincial capital. Prior to 1994, it was known as the Natal Parks Board.
The Hamburg European Open is an annual tennis tournament for professional players held in Hamburg, Germany and part of the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) Tour. Before 2021, it was a male-only event.
Chanelle Scheepers is a retired South African tennis player.
The KwaZulu-Natal Youth Choir was founded in 1968 by Hein de Villiers. The choir is based in Durban, South Africa, and attracts talent from across the KwaZulu-Natal province.
Tennis in Australia refers to the sport of tennis played in Australia. Tennis in Australia has been administered by Tennis Australia since 1904.
Sarel Erwee is a South African professional cricketer. He is a left-handed batsman and a right-arm off-break bowler who plays for KwaZulu Natal. He was born in Pietermaritzburg. He made his international debut for the South Africa cricket team in February 2022.
There have been a number of political assassinations in post-apartheid South Africa. In 2013 it was reported that there had been more than 450 political assassinations in the province of KwaZulu-Natal since the end of apartheid in 1994. In July 2013 the Daily Maverick reported that there had been "59 political murders in the last five years". In August 2016 it was reported that there had been at least twenty political assassinations in the run up to the local government elections on the 3rd of August that year, most of them in KwaZulu-Natal.
This page covers all the important events in the sport of tennis in 2013. Primarily, it provides the results of notable tournaments throughout the year on both the ATP and WTA Tours, the Davis Cup, and the Fed Cup.
Hollywoodbets is a sports betting company based in South Africa. It is also known as Hollywood Sportsbook. It currently operates in South Africa, Mozambique, Ireland and the United Kingdom. The company offers betting via its website, mobisite, call centre, and USSD. It has retail branches in South Africa and Mozambique.
The 1884 Men's tennis tour was the eighth annual tennis tour, consisting of 61 tournaments it began in April in Nuwara Eliya, Ceylon and ended in December in Melbourne, Australia.
Sihle Zikalala is a South African politician from KwaZulu-Natal who has served as the Member of the Executive Council (MEC) for Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs since 2022. He has also been a Member of the KwaZulu-Natal Legislature since 2015.
Nomusa Dube-Ncube is a South African politician and former diplomat who has been the 9th Premier of KwaZulu-Natal since August 2022. A member of the African National Congress, she is the first woman to hold the office.
Christopher John Pappas is a South African politician who is the mayor of the uMngeni Local Municipality. A member of the Democratic Alliance, he has been the party's deputy provincial leader since 2021. Pappas served as a member of the eThekwini city council from 2016 until 2019 and as a DA Member of the KwaZulu-Natal Legislature from 2019 to 2021.
Thembeka Vuyisile Buyisile Mchunu is a South African politician from KwaZulu-Natal serving as a Member of the National Assembly of South Africa since 2019. A member of the African National Congress, she served as the Executive Mayor of the Uthungulu District Municipality from 2011 to 2016. She is married to Senzo Mchunu, the current Minister of Water and Sanitation and the former premier of KwaZulu-Natal.
The 2022 WTA Tour is the global elite women's professional tennis circuit organized by the Women's Tennis Association (WTA) for the 2022 tennis season. The 2022 WTA Tour calendar comprises the Grand Slam tournaments, the WTA 1000 tournaments, the WTA 500 tournaments, the WTA 250 tournaments, the Billie Jean King Cup, and the year-end championships.
In April 2022, days of heavy rain across KwaZulu-Natal in southeastern South Africa led to deadly floods. Particularly hard-hit were areas in and around Durban. At least 435 people died across the province, with an unknown number of people missing as of April 22. Several thousand homes were damaged or destroyed. Critical infrastructure, including major roads, transportation, communication, and electrical systems, were also impacted by the flooding, and this damage greatly hampered recovery and relief efforts. It is one of the deadliest natural disasters in the country in the 21st century, and the deadliest storm since the 1987 floods. The floods have caused more than R17 billion in infrastructure damage. A national state of disaster was declared.