Trivia about Liezel

Liezel's parents own hotels in Durban, South Africa. Her mother Sica used to be a teacher, her father Janus is an engineer. Sica and Jan now live half of the year in Houston, Texas, not far away from Liezel's place.

Liezel has a twin sister, Monita, who lives in the Netherlands. She also has a brother, Janus, who runs the family hotels in South Africa.

Liezel and her husband Tony have four dogs, Dora (a Lab-Hound mix), Ace (an English Mastiff), Amelia (recently adopted from a shelter in Amelia Island) and Sam (a Jack Russell Terrier offered by Martina Navratilova).

Her best friends from tennis community : Martina Navratilova, Mariaan De Swardt, Chanelle Scheepers, Sania Mirza, Lindsay Davenport and Cara Black.

She is a member of the player’s council.

Liezel plays the World Team Tennis competition with the Delaware Smash team,whose captain is Mariaan De Swardt.

In 2005, Liezel and her husband Tony started Liezel’s Cause, a non-profit foundation to help victims of Hurricane Katrina go back to normal life (website: www.liezelscause.com).

She collects tennis plates.

She loves all sports and supports Houston teams. Enjoys surfing the web, e-mailing, checking the stock market, shopping and working out.

Liezel loves all kinds of music (Afrikaans musiek, Christian music, pop… except hard rock).

Her favorite TV show is Law and Order: Special Victim Unit.

Her favorite kind of food is Mexican food.

Her favorite desserts are Koeksisters and Milktart

Liezel and Tony like going on vacation through the USA in their motor home, or on cruises.

Her favorite city is Houston.

She has recently opened her own tennis centre, the Huber Tennis Ranch, with her husband Tony. website: www.hubertennisranch.com

Inspirational model: Nelson Mandela.

If she had not been a professional tennis player, she would have liked to be a vet or to help the homeless.

At Stars for Stars on March 21 st 2006, she collected the Humanitarian Award, for Liezel’s cause.

She got awarded South African sportswoman of the year in 2005.

Named doubles team of years 2007 and 2008 with Cara Black.

Received service award of year 2007 by her peers for her work for Liezel's cause.

Self described are a very organized and tidy person.

Liezel now also competes in triathlon.

Currently ranked World number one doubles player for the 122nd consecutive week (co ranked with partner Cara Black)

After representing South Africa at the 2000 Olympics in Sydney, she represented the USA in Beijing 2008 (she got naturalized in July 2007).