14 years old Zoe Kruger's glory in Tunisia

Zoe Kruger surprised even herself when she won the girls singles title at the African junior closed championships in Tunisia last weekend.

It's not so much that the 14-year-old dispatched two girls aged 17 and one aged 16 in the final three rounds, nor that two opponents were seeded higher than her sixth.

What impressed is this was only her second hard-court tournament in three years.

"Honestly, I was surprised," said US-based Kruger, the oldest daughter of late Springbok legend Ruben Kruger, a key member of the 1995 World Cup-winning side.

In her previous hard-court tournament, in the girls draw of the Australian Open last month, Kruger was eliminated in the opening round by 14th seed Yuki Naito of Japan.

She had won the first set and was serving, 4-3 up in the third, when she got a little overexcited at the prospect of winning.

"It was an overwhelming experience," she admitted. "It was my first time playing with ballboys and that. In the first set I just played, and then in the second set and third set I thought of it [winning]."

Kruger learned from her mistake.

"I didn't think about the next round [in Tunisia], I just thought about the next point ... I tried to win, of course, but I didn't expect to win."

Kruger and sister Isabella, 11, are based at the IMG sports academy in Bradenton on the west coast of Florida, where they train on clay.

Both were awarded scholarships for tuition and training. They were also offered free boarding, but mom Lize felt they were too young to be so far away from their Pretoria home, so she went along and set up house.

"We came over with six suitcases," Lize said of their arrival in mid-2014.

The IMG girls train with many top players who pass through there, like Canadian Genie Bouchard and Garbine Muguruza of Spain.

"In the beginning you think of them as superstars," said Zoe. "Once you get to know them you see they are also people, down to earth."

In Melbourne, the Kruger sisters had a chance meeting on the warm-up courts with former South African Liezel Huber, a multiple grand slam doubles champion.

"I heard her speak Afrikaans and my sister started talking to her first," recalled Zoe.

They hit balls together and the girls drove home with her.

"We were stuck in traffic and we had a lot of time to talk and she just taught me so much. Life lessons and everything on the court. It was fantastic." The Kruger girls play few tournaments, with the focus on development, training and downtime.

"We have some fun," said Lize, pointing out Disney World in Orlando was not too far away.

"I think it's extremely important to live your age because I don't think you can keep it up if you train all the time and by the time you're 18 you don't want to play anymore."

Zoe is the 130th ranked junior girl in the world, with all of those above being older, and most having played more than her 11 tournaments.

She already stands 1.80m tall, while Isabella, at 1.76m, is the same height as their mom.

Zoe will play next in two small events next month to try to enter the WTA rankings, which will allow her to measure her growth against her long-term goals.

"I would like to become No1 in the world, but that's not the most important ... I would like to help other people to have the same opportunities I had to come here.

"I want to give back to Africa and especially South Africa because they have so much potential."

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