South Africa can lay claim to having two winners at the Australian Open, which finished this weekend - one by birth and the other by ancestry.
Soon, however, neither of the two will be playing under a South African flag as Liezel Huber, who won the women's doubles with Zimbabwe's Cara Black, is to take on United States citizenship.
While there has been some shock at Huber's decision, the Durban-born 30-year-old has established her sporting base and her life in the States and was unlikely to return to the country.
The decision is hardly a surprise, however, with Huber saying last year that she would be taking US citizenship and "hoped to play for the US in the 2008 Beijing Olympics".
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'She's still a South African at heart' Her brother, Janus Horn, said last week that more could have been done to keep her in green and gold.
"Liezel was told at the Athens Olympics that there isn't a doubles pair that would be able to win a medal and she wasn't given the opportunity to participate. A week after the Games she beat the Chinese pair that won gold (in Athens)."
"That really upset her. She's still a South African at heart, but she hasn't got good memories of South African tennis. She wanted to play for South Africa in the Fed Cup in Durban a few years ago.
"All she asked was a return flight ticket from the US, but they weren't prepared to pay.
"She was in the squad to play against Austria in 1997, but they didn't want to select her to play. She didn't come home for three years, and when she returned last year, she was so happy she didn't really want to leave again.
'How could I feel sorry for myself?' She and her husband are going to open a tennis centre in the US and she won't return to live in South Africa again."
As sad as that may sound to South Africans, Huber is making a difference in her adopted country, and not only on the court.
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