Former professional tennis player Cliff Drysdale has been married to his wife, DiAnna Belmonte, for over a decade. Drysdale was seventy years old when they tied the knot in 2011.
However, DiAnna is Cliff’s second wife. Before her, he was previously married to Jean Forbes, who represented South Africa in international tennis matches in the fifties and sixties.
Together, Cliff and Jean had two kids, but they eventually broke up in 1982 after several years of togetherness. Two years later, Jean died at age 44 in Austin, Texas.
Born in Nelspruit, South Africa, in 1942, Cliff Drysdale turned professional in 1967 and represented South Africa in numerous international competitions.
One of the highly-ranked players in the sixties and seventies, Drysdale won the Dutch Open singles title consecutively in 1963 and 1964.
He has won around 29 career titles, including singles and doubles titles throughout his career, spanning nearly two decades. During the Open Era, he bagged five singles and six doubles titles, including the 1972 US Open doubles title.
However, he did not win any Grand Slam singles titles. His highest achievement in the tournament was reaching the finals of the 1965 US Open, which he lost to Spanish player Manuel Santana in the 3-1 sets.
Cliff has been working as a tennis commentator for ESPN since his retirement in 1980.
Cliff Drysdale’s Wife, DiAnna Belmonte, And Kids
The retired tennis player Cliff Drysdale has been married to his second wife, DiAnna Belmonte, since April 16, 2011.
Cliff met Dianna much later in his life after he obtained his U.S. citizenship and settled there, where he got his job at ESPN as a tennis commentator.
Unfortunately, there is not much substantial information on DiAnna Belmonte.
Currently, the pair lives in Austin, Texas, and do not have any children together. Speaking more of them, Cliff and DiAnna enjoy spending quality time together, and Cliff is probably having the best time of his life at the moment.
As mentioned earlier, Drysdale was previously married to the late South African tennis athlete Jean Forbes.
Forbes was born on September 23, 1939, in South Africa and grew up playing tennis alongside her brothers, Gordon and Jack Forbes.
Cliff and Jean married in 1967 in London, and the couple has two kids together. They later moved to Texas, United States, but she separated from him in 1982.
Two years later, she died of an undisclosed disease.
Little On Jean Forbes Drysdale’s Career
Jean Forbes Drysdale started playing tennis tournaments before she was a teenager. She started practicing tennis with her older brothers, Jack and Gordon, at a tennis court in their sheep farm in Burgersdrop when she was a kid.
At 15, Jean reached the Queen’s Club Championships finals in 1955.
Although she was a highly-seeded player for the Wimbledon that soon followed, she could not participate because of age restrictions.
She continued playing tennis at the world level in the sixties and played in the Grand Slams for several years. Her greatest achievement in the Grand Slams was reaching the fourth round of the 1962 Wimbledon championships.
After her retirement, she moved to Texas, where she worked as a teaching professional at Lakeway World of Resorts until her death in 1984.
