Two W25 tournaments taking place in South Africa in March will be named after former South African No. 1 and social activist Ilana Kloss, Tennis South Africa announced this week.

The W25 Potchefstroom events, taking place in back-to-back weeks on the ITF World Tennis Tour from 2-8 and 9-15 March, will be known as the Ilana Kloss International in recognition of Kloss’ many achievements – both on court and off.

The Johannesburg native enjoyed an excellent career at the highest level of the game, winning two Grand Slam titles in 1976 – the US Open women’s doubles title with Delina Boshoff and the Roland Garros mixed title with Kim Warwick – and ranked at No. 1 in doubles in that same year.

She also played 13 ties for South Africa in Fed Cup, helping her nation to the World Group semi-finals in 1977, where they fell to a USA side that included Kloss’ now-partner, Billie-Jean King.

Since her retirement, Kloss, as well as serving as CEO and Commissioner of the World Team Tennis professional tennis league, has become a powerful advocate for gender equality, inclusivity and diversity in sport and society alongside King.

“Tennis has been such an important part of my life and it is an honour to have my name added to these two ITF tournaments and help advance the opportunities for girls and women to compete in South Africa and the surrounding regions,” Kloss said.

“Currently there are a limited number of tournaments where players can earn valuable ranking points so adding these two events will provide greater access, more opportunity and a chance for these women to earn points in Africa toward improving their ranking and be able to play in tournaments around the globe.”

As an added incentive to local players – the best performing South Africa women’s player over the two weeks of the Ilana Kloss International Series will earn a travel grant to play more international tournaments outside of South Africa.

South African world No. 340 Chanel Simmonds features on the main draw acceptance list for next week’s tournament, with a further eight South African players currently included in the qualifying event and bidding to join Simmonds in the main event.