Mariaan de Swardt
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Mariaan de Swardt (born March 18, 1971 in Johannesburg) is a former tennis player from South Africa, who played as a professional from 1980 to 2001. She twice represented her native country at the Summer Olympics, starting in 1992.
Since 1988, De Swardt has won two Grand Slam titles in mixed doubles competition, including the 1999 Australian Open and the 2000 French Open with partner David Adams. She worked with a junior tennis program in Hilton Head. Along with the two Grand Slam wins, De Swardt also holds four career doubles titles and a WTA Tour singles title in 1998.
She was named the 2000 Female Most Valuable Player in World Team Tennis and finished the 1995 season ranked No. 1 in women's doubles with Martina Navratilova, helping lead the New Jersey Stars to the league championship. Perhaps the best singles win of her career also came in 1995 as she defeated then top-ranked Steffi Graf at a tournament in Brighton, dealing Graf only her second loss of the year to that point. A member of the South African Fed Cup Team in 1992 and 1994-1997, she has also been a commentator for Eurosport and South African television during her career.