World No. 1 Diede de Groot made an uncharacteristically faltering but ultimately winning start to her quest for a fourth successive NEC Wheelchair Singles Masters title on the opening day of round-robin matches at the USTA National Campus after beating home favourite Dana Mathewson 6-2 1-6 6-3 in Orlando.

Winner of the Golden Slam in 2021 and beaten only once so far this season, De Groot arrived in Orlando having won her last 15 Singles Masters matches in straight sets since starting her reign as women’s champion in 2017.

However, after making a comfortable start to her 10th career match against world No. 8 Mathewson and taking the opening set, De Groot lost eight of the next nine games as Mathewson mastered the windy conditions and piled relentless pressure on her opponent, who increasingly struggled with her service.

By the time Mathewson had taken a 2-0 lead in the third and deciding set, De Groot’s double fault tally for the match had reached 14. But almost as quickly as the momentum had swung in the American’s favour, then it moved back towards De Groot as Mathewson’s own error count started to rise and De Groot recovered confidence in her serve before finally striking the cross court forehand winner that extended her Masters winning streak to 16 matches.

“I think I actually played really well in the first set and I played how I wanted to play,” said De Groot. “In the second set Dana just really stepped it up, she played really well, she hit the right shots at the right moments and even through I let her in a little bit, she really took it.     

“After I was 1-0 down (in the third set) I said to myself ‘you don’t have a lot of chances. You need to take the chances you get and you need to work for them’ and at that point I started to relax a bit. I think in the second set I relaxed a bit too much. I know each match is going to be like this, the level is really high and everyone is really fighting for it (the title) and it’s going to be a tough one this year.”

While De Groot dropped her first set in four Singles Masters, there were fewer problems for Momoko Ohtani, the Japanese player that beat De Groot in the 2020 Roland Garros semi-finals. Ohtani made a winning Singles Masters debut with a 6-2 6-2 victory over Kgothatso Montjane to set up an intriguing meeting with De Groot in their next Group A match.

Women’s Group B also began with Dutch and Japanese winners as 2014 Singles Masters champion Aniek van Koot swept past Chinese opponent Zhenzhen Zhu 6-2 6-2 and 2013 champion and second seed Yui Kamiji beat Chile’s Macarena Cabrillana 6-0 6-1.

Reid avenges 2019 round-robin group loss to Peifer

Gordon Reid avenged his loss to Nicolas Peifer in the group stage of the 2019 NEC Singles Masters in Orlando with a 6-4 6-3 victory this time as he and fellow Brit Alfie Hewett ensured that their next men’s Group A match on Tuesday would be against each other.

Since 2013 Peifer and Reid have now met seven times in round-robin competition at the Singles Masters, with Reid making it five wins in those seven matches after fending off a game point that would have given Peifer a 5-3 first set lead. Instead, it was the world No.5 who took the last three games of q touch opening set in which Peifer was only able to convert one of his eight break point opportunities.

Hewett also faced a strong first set challenge form Masters debutant Martin de la Puente, but the world No. 2 and 2017 champion earned an early break in the second set before easing to a 6-4, 6-2 win.

Tokyo Paralympic silver medallist Tom Egberink’s Masters debut also ended defeat. The Dutchman lost out to Stephane Houdet 6-2 6-3 as Houdet made a strong start to his title bid, 10 years after France’s world No. 6 won what is still his only Singles Masters title to date.

Two players make their Singles Masters debuts in men’s Group B and Egberink’s experience of an early loss was shared by Takuya Miki as the Japanese lost out to second seed and world No. 4 Gustavo Fernandez. Fernandez next plays Houdet in the 48th career meeting between the two players and two years on from their three-set round-robin group match in Orlando that the Argentinean won 7-5 in the third.

Lapthorne earns third-set tie-break win over Sugeno

The first Singles Masters quad draw to feature eight players got underway with four-time finalist Andy Lapthorne beating Koji Sugeno in another rematch of a 2019 match-up in the round-robin phase of the competition.

World No.6 Lapthorne’s only previous match against world No. 5 Sugeno this season had ended in a 7-6 7-6 loss at the British Open, but Lapthorne battled valiantly from 2-0 down in the third and deciding set in Orlando to complete a 4-6 6-2 7-6(4) victory.

Lapthorne was joined in securing an early Group B victory by second seed Niels Vink. Runner-up to David Wagner on his Singles Masters debut in 2019, Vink wasted little time in his opening match of this year to beat Korean Kyu-Seung Kim 6-0 6-2.

Vink’s compatriot and top seed Sam Schroder made an equally emphatic early statement in his Group A match against Ymanitu Silva, earning another 6-0 6-2 win for his second win over the Brazilian by the same score this year.

“I’m really happy to be back here after two-years. It’s been a long two years waiting to play here again,” said Schroder. “It was a really solid win today and I’m really happy with my level. It’s definitely a different situation (as top seed) to two years ago, I’ve grown a lot as a player and that shows in my ranking, but even though I go in as number one seed there are a lot of great opponents here and you always have to be at your best to perform at a tournament like this.”

Meanwhile, Wagner’s quest for a 12th title began comfortably against his countryman and Singles Masters first-timer Bryan Barten, Wagner easing to a 6-2 6-1 win to earn a meeting with Schroder next.

The second day of play in Orlando will include the second round of quad singles group matches alongside the first round of group matches in the UNIQLO Wheelchair Doubles Masters.

Order of Play - 1 November