De Groot defeats Kamiji for 10th consecutive Grand Slam title victory
Another Grand Slam, another title victory for Diede de Groot – there are few things that are more predictable in the game at the moment than the Dutchwoman winning a major title, but De Groot’s ability to deliver on such high expectations remains remarkable.
In the end, her victory over Japan’s Yui Kamiji, her closest rival, in Saturday’s Roland Garros final was a straightforward one, with De Groot emerging a 6-2 6-0 winner. It was certainly more comfortable for the world No. 1 than the pair’s meeting in Australia, when De Groot battled back to win after losing the first set to love.
“I think I stepped up from two-all [in the first set],” De Groot, showing commendable under-statement, analysed afterwards. “Already in the first two games I felt like I was doing pretty well just not on point. I was playing the right game, just not 100% there yet. Happily it went all very smooth after that.”
Today’s win sees De Groot claim her 10th consecutive Grand Slam title and her 18th in total. She recorded her 100th straight match-win in the first round here on Tuesday, is unbeaten on the tour since February 2021 and unbeaten at the Grand Slams since Roland Garros in 2020, which was played in October.
It seems as though she sets new records everytime she arrives on court – and this, she explained later, was part of what keeps her motivated. Esther Vergeer’s tally of 21 Grand Slam titles is now in sight for De Groot, although it will take De Groot several more years to get close to Vergeer’s record winning streak of 470 consecutive victories.
“I'm not sure if I'm going to make 400, especially because this has already taken me two-and-a-half years,” De Groot laughed. “But no, it's really something very special. And also, I think it really just explains how good Esther was. I'm really just trying to do my own thing, and hopefully I'll be as good as her in terms of titles one day.”
Next up this year will be Wimbledon, and a chance for De Groot to equal one of Vergeer’s other records – Vergeer won 11 consecutive Grand Slam titles in 2005-10 and while victory at SW19 will see De Groot also reach that mark, she was not taking anything for granted on a surface on which she has felt uncomfortable in the past.
“Grass is my enemy at the moment,” she smiled. “But I’d like to make it work for me at Wimbledon. That's going to be my next one.”
It will take a monumental effort by the rest of the field to stop De Groot adding to her Grand Slam haul in London next month.
There was some consolation to come later in the day for Kamiji. She and partner Kgothatso Montjane won the doubles title – their first Grand Slam triumph as a team – with a 6-3 6-2 victory over De Groot and Maria Florencia Moreno. That win ends one of De Groot’s winning streaks – the world No. 1 had won the doubles title in Paris for the last five years alongside regular partner Aniek van Koot.
It was a particularly special moment for Montjane, for whom this was a first major title in either singles or doubles. She became the second South African player to win a maiden Slam title on Saturday, after Donald Ramphadi had triumphed alongside Andy Lapthorne in the quad doubles final.
“It's really a great feeling for me,” Montjane enthused. “Ad to have done it with Yui, I couldn't have asked for anyone else. It was a really amazing atmosphere out there and it's a great achievement for me.”