De Groot determined to deliver at Paralympics

World No. 1 Diede De Groot may have made her Paralympic debut four years ago, but the desire to claim gold has been a dream almost a decade in the making, since her first Paralympic experience at London 2012.

“I was in London for a Paralympic internship,” she recalls. “I watched every match – and only tennis. I watched table tennis, football, athletics, everything really. And it was cool!”

Five years later, she was at the heart of the action rather than spectating, winning a women’s doubles silver medal alongside Marjolein Buis in an all-Dutch final won by Aniek Van Koot and Jiske Griffioen.

And having missed out on a singles medal after defeat in the bronze medal match, the 24-year-old is laser-focused on taking her chance in Tokyo.

“I’m really looking forward to it,” she said. “It will be my second Paralympics, and I’ve trained for it really hard – I’ve trained for it for four years, so I’m really excited to show what I can do.

“I’m looking forward to playing there, and feeling like it’s the Paralympics you’re playing at. That special feeling – the feeling that you get goosebumps when you enter the court. And really to enjoy the moment of playing that’s every four years. And that’s the Paralympics.”

While some players talk about visualising the dream of wearing a medal around your neck as the national anthem plays in their honour, De Groot is determined not to get ahead of herself, and has avoided imagining herself as Paralympic champion.

“I haven’t actually thought about this,” she said with a smile. “It’s coming very soon, so I should really think about that. But also, I should really enjoy just playing there and not think about achieving too much yet. I should really just play and enjoy.”

But don’t take De Groot’s philosophical approach as a sign that she believes the Paralympic Games are to be treated as just another tournament. Indeed, she explains that her bittersweet experience in Rio five years ago had a profound effect on her mentality.

“It did change me, in the way that I’m more motivated now that I’ve felt that,” she said of the Paralympic experience. “I had that little taste of what the victory could be like, and I’m motivated more than ever.”