Roxanne Clarke has joined the Pacific Training centre as the new Head Coach. Born and raised in Cape Town, South Africa, she took up tennis at the influence of her parents. At the young age of 16, she earned a scholarship to the ITF Training Centre in Pretoria, joining some of South Africa’s elite players.
Her Junior World ranking at its highest was 196 in singles and 56 in doubles.
She represented South Africa at many events including the U16 World Championships, the commonwealth Youth Games, where the South African Team won a Bronze medal and the African Junior Championships, where Roxanne and her partner Kelly Anderson won the Doubles Title. She was also a member of the South African Fed Cup Team in 2002-03.
Roxanne graduated with a Bachelor’s Degree in Interdisciplinary Studies from Arizona State University in 2008 and was a member of the University’s Women’s Tennis Team. A three-time Pacific-10 Conference (now Pacific-12) “Player of the Week,” Roxanne lists her favourite achievement in college as winning the 2006 ITA/Riviera All-American doubles title. She earned Pacific-10 Conference Honourable Mentions in 2006 and 2007.
After Roxanne graduated from Arizona State University she joined the Huber Tennis Range in Texas. She was part of the coaching staff developing young juniors. During her period at the Huber Tennis Range, Roxanne gained valuable experience travelling with former world no.1 doubles player Liezel Huber and Top 100 WTA Singles player Chani Scheepers.
Roxanne represented South Africa as the coach of the Girls’ 14 & under team for the 2013 African Junior Team Championships in Tunisia, where the girls place third overall. Also in 2013, Roxanne took South Africa’s qualifiers to the Confederation of African Tennis (CAT) 14 & under Masters in Egypt. In 2015, she travelled with the South African Team to the CAT Southern African Championships where the team came out victorious.
Roxanne is also a certified Coach Educator assisting with Tennis South Africa’s Volunteer and Play and Stay coaching courses.