Melanie South

Melanie South

Melanie Jayne South (born 3 May 1986 in Kingston upon Thames) is an English tennis player. So far in her career she has won a total of six singles and 22 doubles titles on the ITF tour and reached a career-high singles ranking of world number 99 on 2 February 2009.

Her greatest success in a Grand Slam so far came in the first round of the 2006 Wimbledon Championships when she came back from one set down to beat the world number 14, Francesca Schiavone, in a match witnessed by Martina Navratilova. At the time, South was ranked at 305 in the world and had reached the main draw courtesy of a wild card. Not since the third round of the 1998 tournament, when Samantha Smith beat the world number 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 number 62. Outside of Wimbledon, South reached the first round of the 2009 Australian Open without needing to qualify or receiving a wild card. 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 wild card. She lost to world number 17, Marion Bartoli, in round one.