One of the biggest miracles in tennis history is the Black family of Zimbabwe. Three siblings Byron, Wayne and Cara Black all won Grand Slam titles in doubles and mixed.
To my knowledge, it’s the only time three siblings all won Grand Slam titles.
I spotted Wayne at Sarasota Open today. He’s not coaching the Zimbabwe player in the draw, Benjamin Lock, he’s coaching Estonia’s Mark Lajal for the last five or six months. Lajal lost yesterday in three sets and stayed today to train (and do a Biofile interview with me) before leaving tomorrow for Europe.
Wayne Black won 2001 US Open and 2005 Australian Open doubles titles with Kevin Ullyet and two more mixed slams with sister Cara, 2002 French Open and 2004 Wimbledon. Wayne reached no. 4 in doubles and 69 in singles.
Byron Black reached no. 22 in singles and no. 1 in doubles and won the 1994 French Open doubles title with American Jonathan Stark.
Cara Black was no. 1 in WTA doubles and also won five doubles and mixed doubles Grand Slams each.
Wayne Black said he started coaching Lajal 5-6 months ago and revealed the 21 year old Lajal, currently ranked 200 in the world, is a very unique project because he’s never really been taught the basic fundamental way of playing tennis, his previous coaches emphasized him working on the big, finishing shots and not enough of how to set up and construct points. Lajal and Black fly back to Europe tomorrow. Lajal’s best ranking so far was 191 in Nov. 2023.
Wayne lives in Wimbledon and Zimbabwe and has two children with his wife who is from Kazakhstan. One daughter is a top 60 ITF junior now being coached by former Grand Slam champion Larisa Neiland- Savchenko. Cara also has kids and would like to coach more, she also lives in the London area and has coached some players in recent years including Sania Mirza and Su-Wei Hsieh.
Wayne also said when Byron Black stopped playing pro tennis he put his racquet down and hasn’t touched one since. He also has a family.
In case you’re wondering the three Sanchez siblings did not all win Grand Slam titles. Javier Sanchez made the QF three times at Grand Slams in doubles but never won a title. Sister Arantxa won 14 major titles in singles, doubles and mixed combined and Emilio won three Grand Slam doubles titles and two more in mixed.
The Black family might be the only tennis family to have three siblings to all win Grand Slam titles which is a miraculous achievement that will probably never be equaled.
Byron Black · Cara Black · Sarasota Open · Wayne Black · Zimbabwe
