Schalk van der Merwe (16 April 1961 – 24 January 2016) was a professional tennis player from South Africa. His best performance in a Grand Slam tournament was a third-round appearance at the 1982 US Open, where he had wins over Derek Tarr and

Raúl Ramírez Raúl Ramírez (born 20 June 1953) is a Mexican former professional tennis player. He was active during the 1970s and 1980s. Ramírez was the first player to finish first in both singles and doubles Grand Prix point standings, accomplishing the ...

. In the second round of the

1982 Wimbledon Championships The 1982 Wimbledon Championships was a tennis tournament played on grass courts at the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club in Wimbledon, London in the United Kingdom. The tournament ran from 21 June until 4 July. It was the 96th staging of t ...

, van der Merwe lost a marathon match to

Steve Denton Steve Denton (born September 5, 1956) is a former professional tennis player. He is currently the head men's tennis coach at Texas A&M University. After becoming an all-American at the University of Texas in 1978, Denton spent nine seasons play ...

, which had to be stopped due to darkness when the scores were level at 10–10 in the fifth set. Play resumed the following day, and Denton won 13–11.

Death

While in Ireland, where he was working as a medical doctor, van der Merwe was found dead in his car. The cause of death is still unknown, but he apparently suffered from high blood pressure in the time preceding his death.

Career finals

Doubles: 1 (0–1)

Challenger titles

Doubles: (1)

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Van Der Merwe, Schalk 1961 births 2016 deaths Afrikaner people South African people of Dutch descent South African male tennis players People from Robertson, Western Cape Tennis players from the Western Cape 20th-century South African sportsmen