Vergeer hails Dutch for raising bar ever higher at Tokyo 2020

In a changing landscape, a similar story. The Tokyo 2020 Paralympics welcomed 104 wheelchair tennis athletes from 31 nations, a testament to the continuing growth of the sport worldwide – but in the end, as it has been at every Paralympic Games since the addition of wheelchair tennis in 1992, it was the Netherlands who topped the medal table, filling seven of the 18 podium positions at Ariake Tennis Park.

Three golds, two silver, two bronze – and perhaps most impressive of all, at least one player or team on all six podiums, the first wheelchair tennis nation to achieve the feat since the introduction of the quad division in 2004.

Esther Vergeer, seven-time Paralympic champion and Netherlands’ chef de mission in Tokyo, attributed the growing success of the Dutch to the influence of her former coach Dennis Sporrel, who took over as the national head of wheelchair tennis in 2015.

“He built a new programme with strict rules, better programming and full-time athletes, and I think that makes the difference,” Vergeer said. “And that’s why we are, in all divisions, now showing.”

There was success across the generations as well as divisions. There was quad singles bronze and doubles gold for 18-year-old Niels Vink, already making partner Sam Schroder a veteran at 21 as he claimed silver in singles alongside his doubles triumph. And at the other end of the age range was 38-year-old Maikel Scheffers, the eldest member of the Dutch team, who claimed men’s doubles bronze alongside singles silver medallist Tom Egberink.

“There’s a generation of difference, but we have so much fun together,” Scheffers said of the atmosphere in the Dutch camp in Tokyo. “We know why we’re here, and everybody knows each other so well because we train together. We laugh together, we cry together, and everybody supports each other.

“The atmosphere in the team is so good. Everybody accepts a lot from each other, because there is a lot of tension of course – everybody wants to win medals. But I think everybody managed so well.”

Is there a magic formula to three decades of Dutch success? Beyond the infrastructure and legacy of success driving them on, van Koot points to a key factor often cited as an excuse rather than something to capitalise on.

“We are a very small country,” said the five-time Paralympic medallist who defended her doubles crown in Tokyo, this time alongside Diede De Groot after winning with Jiske Griffioen at Rio 2016. “If everyone wants to train together and meet in Utrecht, everyone has to drive no further than an hour and a half away.

“We have some coaches that specialise in wheelchair tennis that have done really well, and the Tennis Foundation want to make wheelchair tennis work, and they put so much effort and energy into it – that’s why we are fortunate.

“And we set the standards high. Of course, we had Esther Vergeer, and she set the standards very high! That’s a mentor for everyone and that’s what we learn from. We want to be like that, so we train very hard.”

Vergeer was on hand to witness De Groot extend the Dutch tradition of winning both the women’s singles and doubles titles at every Paralympic wheelchair tennis event, the world No. 1 sweeping both gold medals.

“I saw Diede’s win, and with a big fight,” Vergeer said of De Groot’s women’s singles gold medal match against home hope Yui Kamiji, the former world No. 1. “I saw her nerves, and I could completely imagine how she must have felt – this is a big thing for her.

“Gold medal matches are more tense. There’s more nerves involved, and there’s more aspects of tennis involved: tactics, technique, and fighting those nerves and the pressure that you feel. It was wonderful to see how Diede did that.”

For men’s singles silver-medallist Egberink, who made his Paralympic debut at London 2012 and played at Rio 2016 with a fractured thumb, the sixth of his elbow surgeries – five to the right, one to the left – seems to have finally allowed him to achieve his potential.

“If I wasn’t injured that much, I think it would have come earlier to be at the Grand Slams, because I know I have the level,” said the 28-year-old, who departs Tokyo for his US Open debut in New York. “After this, everybody will be looking out for me. I’ll enjoy it more, and I think I’ll be playing more relaxed as well.”

And then there are the Dutch young guns, Schroder and Vink, winners of the Netherlands’ first wheelchair tennis gold of the Games in the quad doubles before both reaching the podium in the singles draw.

“Definitely the infrastructure we have in the Netherlands is one of the best in terms of getting young people to play sports, to play wheelchair tennis, and to help them get to a higher level,” Schroder said on the subject of Dutch success. “But ultimately, it’s just putting in a lot of hours that people don’t see, even though they know we put it in.

“I hope that it just inspires more people, first of all, just to watch wheelchair tennis and disabled sports in general, because it’s just amazing. And through that way, also that we inspire more disabled people to try it out themselves and see if they enjoy it. As long as you can get moving and get enjoyment out of it, that’s all that matters.”

The Netherlands may be dominant, but they are not out of sight. Both Great Britain and hosts Japan claimed four medals in Tokyo, winning at least one in all three divisions, much to the delight of three-time men’s singles champion Shingo Kunieda, who alongside Kamiji has long been the nation’s figurehead of wheelchair tennis.

“Now the women’s players are all good, and all the men here were Top-20,” Kunieda said. “The level of wheelchair tennis in Japan is very good quality, and now the No. 1 junior [Tokito Oda] is also coming, so I’m very glad they are following me.”

Then there is the quality of contests on display at the Paralympics over the past two weeks shows that the level of play in the sport continues to develop apace – and it is the Dutch who continue to trailblaze in that respect as well.

“This is the new generation, and I think they also set the standard for what the new tennis is going to look like,” Vergeer said. “They are all super-fit, they are all athletes. They appreciate being here, they enjoy the game. Niels could not stop smiling all day long.

“That is what sport is about. It’s also about how you see yourself on the podium, about thinking you deserve it as a player – but it’s also about showing the world how much fun and joy sport can bring.

“I hope in my time, when I was playing, I contributed to building and developing wheelchair tennis. Now this team are taking over, and the Orange is not gone yet. That makes me proud.”