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 of three different grand slam tournaments in three different years partnering three different fellow South African players. De Jager is a former 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) ResultYearChampionshipSurfacePartnerOpponentsScoreLoss1989WimbledonGrass Wayne Ferreira Jared Palmer Jonathan Stark6–7(4–7), 6–7(2–7)Loss1991WimbledonGrass Andrei Medvedev Karim Alami Greg Rusedski6–1, 6–7(4–7), 4–6Win1991US OpenHard Karim Alami Michael Joyce Vince Spadea6–4, 6–7, 6–1

Major finals

Grand Slam finals

Mixed doubles: 2 (2 runners-up) ResultYearChampionshipSurfacePartnerOpponentsScoreLoss 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 ResultYearLocationSurfacePartnerOpponentsScore4th place 2000 Sydney Hard David Adams Àlex Corretja Albert Costa 6–2, 4–6, 3–6

ATP career finals

Doubles: 19 (7 titles, 12 runner-ups) LegendGrand Slam Tournaments (0–0)ATP World Tour Finals (0–0)ATP Masters Series (0–2)ATP Championship Series (3–2)ATP World Series (4–8)Finals by surfaceHard (4–6)Clay (1–1)Grass (0–1)Carpet (2–4)Finals by settingOutdoors (2–6)Indoors (5–6)

ResultW–LDateTournamentTierSurfacePartnerOpponentsScoreWin1–0Moscow, RussiaWorld SeriesCarpet Marius Barnard David Adams Andrei Olhovskiy6–4, 3–6, 7–6Loss1–1Lyon, FranceWorld SeriesCarpet Stefan Kruger Gary Muller Danie Visser3–6, 6–7Loss1–2Basel, SwitzerlandWorld SeriesHard Lan Bale Jared Palmer Patrick McEnroe3–6, 6–7Win2–2Tel Aviv, IsraelWorld SeriesHard Lan Bale Jan Apell Jonas Björkman6–7, 6–2, 7–6Win3–2Toulouse, FranceWorld SeriesHard Jonas Björkman Dave Randall Greg Van Emburgh7–6, 7–6Loss3–3Lyon, FranceWorld SeriesCarpet Wayne Ferreira Jakob Hlasek Yevgeny Kafelnikov3–6, 3–6Loss3–4Halle, GermanyWorld SeriesGrass Marc-Kevin Goellner Ellis Ferreira Rick Leach6–4, 4–6, 6–7 Loss3–5Vienna, AustriaChampionship SeriesCarpet David Adams Yevgeny Kafelnikov Daniel Vacek5–7, 3–6Loss3–6Dubai, United Arab EmiratesWorld SeriesHard David Adams Wayne Black Sandon Stolle6–4, 1–6, 4–6Win4–6Rotterdam, NetherlandsChampionship SeriesCarpet David Adams Neil Broad Peter Tramacchi6–7, 6–3, 6–4Loss4–7Rome, ItalyMasters SeriesClay David Adams Ellis Ferreira Rick Leach7–6, 1–6, 2–6Loss4–8Washington, United StatesChampionship SeriesHard David Adams Justin Gimelstob Sébastien Lareau5–7, 7–6, 3–6Loss4–9Toulouse, FranceWorld SeriesCarpet David Adams Olivier Delaître Jeff Tarango6–3, 6–7, 4–6Loss4–10Stuttgart, GermanyMasters SeriesHard David Adams Byron Black Jonas Björkman7–6, 6–7, 0–6Win5–10Rotterdam, NetherlandsChampionship SeriesHard David Adams Tim Henman Yevgeny Kafelnikov5–7, 6–2, 6–3Win6–10London, United KingdomChampionship SeriesHard David Adams Jan-Michael Gambill Scott Humphries6–3, 6–7(7–9), 7–6(13–11)Win7–10Munich, GermanyInternational SeriesClay David Adams Max Mirnyi Nenad Zimonjić6–4, 6–4Loss7–11Shanghai, ChinaInternational SeriesHard Robbie Koenig Byron Black Thomas Shimada2–6, 6–3, 5–7Loss7–12San Jose, United StatesInternational SeriesHard Robbie Koenig Wayne Black Kevin Ullyett3–6, 6–4, [5–10]

ATP Challenger and ITF Futures finals

Doubles: 9 (7–2) LegendATP Challenger (7–2)ITF Futures (0–0)Finals by surfaceHard (5–1)Clay (1–0)Grass (0–1)Carpet (1–0)

ResultW–LDateTournamentTierSurfacePartnerOpponentsScoreLoss0–1Newcastle, United KingdomChallengerGrass Christo van Rensburg Nicholas Fulwood Peter Nyborg6–7, 1–6Win1–1Madeira, PortugalChallengerHard Byron Talbot Byron Black T. J. Middleton2–6, 7–6, 6–4Win2–1Jerusalem, IsraelChallengerHard Christo van Rensburg Nduka Odizor Bryan Shelton6–2, 6–4Win3–1Turin, ItalyChallengerClay Byron Black T. J. Middleton Ted Scherman6–4, 6–2Win4–1Sedona, United StatesChallengerHard Robbie Koenig Adam Peterson Eric Taino6–2, 6–2Loss4–2Brest, FranceChallengerHard Robbie Koenig Dave Randall Jack Waite6–3, 6–7, 4–6Win5–2Aachen, GermanyChallengerHard Chris Haggard Dave Randall Jack Waite3–6, 6–1, 7–6Win6–2Neumünster, GermanyChallengerCarpet Chris Haggard Lars Burgsmüller Markus Hantschk6–3, 6–1Win7–2Lexington, United StatesChallengerHard Robbie Koenig Paul Kilderry Jack Waite7–6(7–1), 7–5

Performance timelines

Doubles Tournament199219931994199519961997199819992000200120022003SRW–LWin %Grand Slam tournamentsAustralian OpenASF2R1R2R1R3R3R2RA1R2R0 / 1012–10French OpenA2R1R1R1R1R2R1R1RA1RA0 / 92–9Wimbledon2R3R1R3R1R2R3R3RSF2R2R1R0 / 1216–12US Open1R1R3R1R2RQFSF2R1RQFA1R0 / 1114–11Win–loss1–27–43–42–42–44–49–45–45–44–21–31–30 / 4244–42National RepresentationSummer Olympic GamesANot HeldANot Held4thNot Held0 / 13–2Year-end ChampionshipsATP World Tour FinalsDid not qualifyRRDNQ0 / 10–3ATP Masters SeriesIndian WellsAASF2RQFA1R1RQF1R1RA0 / 88–8MiamiAA2R3R1R2R1R2R3RQF2RA0 / 97–9Monte CarloAASFQF1RAA1R2R1R1RA0 / 76–7RomeA1RSFSF1RQ11RF1RA1RA0 / 810–8HamburgAA2R1RQFA2R2R1RAAA0 / 65–6CanadaA1RAAAA1RSFQFAAA0 / 45–4CincinnatiA2R1R2RAA2RQF1RAAA0 / 65–6StuttgartAAAAQFA1RF2RAAA0 / 45–4ParisAQ31R2RAA1R2RQFAAA0 / 53–5Win–loss0–01–311–79–76–61–12–814–97–92–31–40–00 / 5754–57

Mixed doubles Tournament19931994199519961997199819992000200120022003SRW–LWin %Grand Slam tournamentsAustralian OpenA1R2RSFFA1R2RAAA0 / 69–6French Open1R1RF3RAQF3RSFAAA0 / 712–7Wimbledon2R1R2R1RQF1R2RQF2R1R2R0 / 1111–11US OpenASF1R2RA2RQFAAAA0 / 57–5Win–loss1–23–47–45–47–23–34–47–31–10–11–10 / 2939–29

External links