Draw announced for Paris 2024 Paralympic Wheelchair Tennis Event
Players can plot their route to the podium – and potential gold – after the draw for the Paris 2024 Paralympic Wheelchair Tennis Event was made at Tuesday's draw ceremony at Le Club des Loges, Roland Garros.
Diede de Groot is bidding to become just the second player after fellow Dutchwoman Esther Vergeer to win back-to-back Paralympic golds in women’s singles and the 27-year-old begins her quest against Germany’s Katharina Kruger.
Japan’s Yui Kamiji, who claimed silver at Tokyo 2020 after losing out to De Groot in the final, will be intent on going one step further here and faces South Africa’s Mariska Venter in the opening round.
Aside from at Tokyo 2020, every women’s singles final since wheelchair tennis became a full-medal sport at the Paralympics in 1992 has been contested by Dutch players.
Aniek van Koot has fought – and lost – two of those finals, at London 2012 and Rio 2016, and she will be another with ambitions of topping the women’s singles podium. She faces a showdown with Switzerland’s Nalani Buob in round one.
A new gold medallist is guaranteed in men's and quad singles following the retirements of Shingo Kuneida and Dylan Alcott after Tokyo 2020, and there being no previous champions in either of those draws.
Looking at the men's singles initially, Great Britain’s Alfie Hewett is hoping to add Paralympic gold to the nine Grand Slam singles titles he has and complete the career Golden Slam. The 26-year-old has a bye in the first round and will face either Sergei Lysov of Israel or Chile’s Bryan Tapia in round two.
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Japanese teenager Tokito Oda, who already has two Roland Garros men’s singles titles to his name, also receives a bye. The 18-year-old will draw swords with either Great Britain’s Ben Bartram or home favourite Guilhem Laget of France in round two.
Spain’s Martin de la Puente, who reached his maiden Grand Slam singles final at Wimbledon in July, is the third seed in the men’s draw and also receives a bye. Argentina’s Ezequiel Casco or Anderson Parker of Australia await in round two.
In the quad singles draw, world No. 1 Sam Schroder has received a bye following the withdrawal of Australia’s Heath Davidson for personal reasons. Schroder will face South Africa’s Donald Ramphadi or Leandro Pena of Brazil in the quarter-finals.
Elsewhere, 2024 Wimbledon champion Niels Vink will play South Arica’s Lucas Sithole in his opening match, Guy Sasson of Israel takes on Chile’s Francisco Cayulef and Great Britain’s Andy Lapthorne will do battle with Diego Perez of Chile.
In the men's doubles, Hewett and Gordon Reid go in search of their career Golden Slam in doubles and play Chilean duo Alexander Cataldo and Tapia in the second round after being handed a bye in round one.
France's Stephane Houdet will contest the men's doubles with Frederic Cattaneo after winning gold at the previous two Paralympics alongside Nicolas Peifer. They face Israel's Adam Berdichevsky and Lysov in the second round.
At the age of 53, Houdet is the oldest player competing in the Paris 2024 Paralympic Wheelchair Tennis Event but a medal in the French capital will be the fourth of his distinguished career.
De Groot and Van Koot are the defending champions in the women's doubles and face a quarter-final showdown with either American pair Dana Mathewson and Maylee Phelps – at 17, the youngest competitor here – or Momoko Ohtani and Saki Takamuro of Japan.
Schroder and Vink will head into the quad doubles as favourites after winning gold at Tokyo 2020 and conquering all before them in the doubles competition at Roland Garros in June. A semi-final clash with either Chile's Cayulef and Perez or Sithole and Ramphadi of South Africa is on the card.