Regional Games bring added spice to 2023 UNIQLO Wheelchair Tennis Tour
As the 2023 UNIQLO Wheelchair Tennis Tour draws to a close and less than 260 days remain until the opening ceremony of the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games, the last five months have provided unprecedented opportunities for eight wheelchair tennis players to earn automatic qualification for Paris.
Due to exceptional circumstances all four Regional Multisport Games have taken place in one calendar year for the first time, with all four events featuring wheelchair tennis for the first time, too.
Players from 60 countries have competed across the four wheelchair tennis events that had ITF 2 Series stats on the UNIQLO Wheelchair Tennis Tour with the winners of the men’s and women’s singles draws gaining automatic qualification for Paris 2024, subject to meeting additional criteria previously outlined by the ITF.
African Para Games
South Africa’s Alwande Sikhosana is on course to make his Paralympic debut in Paris after winning the men’s singles gold medal at the 1st African Para Games in Accra, Ghana without dropping a set.
Morocco’s Najwa Awane made her Paralympic Games debut in Tokyo in 2021, but had to battle hard to give herself the opportunity of also competing in Paris after she was taken to a final set tie-break in her women’s singles semi-final against Nigeria fourth seed Kafayat Omisore. Nevertheless, Awane prevailed 4-6 6-3 7-6(3) before going on to ease through her all-Moroccan final against Samira Benichi 6-1 6-2.
European Para Championships
While the African Para Games made their debut in Accra, Rotterdam was host to another global sporting first after hosting the inaugural European Para Championships.
The only one of this year’s four Regional Games where the men’s singles gold medal was not won by the top seed, the European Para Championships fittingly saw Dutch players win all three singles gold medals on offer after second seed Ruben Spaargaren won a dramatic final against top seed Martin de La Puente 7-5 5-7 6-4 to earn his qualification for Paris 2024, which would potentially be the second successive Paralympics for Spaargaren.
There were few surprises in the women’s singles in Rotterdam after Diede de Groot and Aniek van Koot wo through to contest the women’s singles final, with world No. 1 De Groot coming out on top 6-3 6-1. De Groot will go into 2024 with her qualification for Paris all but secured as she seeks a second successive Paralympic women singles gold medal.
The feeling of winning never gets old, especially in front of your home supporters, and so it was for the Dutch wheelchair tennis team in Rotterdam, as they won nine of the 18 medals across the six singles and doubles draws, with Niels Vink and Sam Schroder dominating the quad singles and doubles.
Asian Para Games
The 4th Asian Para Games was the first without Shingo Kunieda, after the three-time men’s singles gold medallist announced his retirement at the start of 2023, while the women’s singles draw in Hangzhou featured two previous women’s singles gold medallists – Thailand’s two-time champion Sakhorn Khanthasit and defending champion Yui Kamiji.
However, having assumed Kunieda’s crown as Japanese No. 1 during a record-breaking 2023, Tokito Oda went to Hangzhou as the warm favourite for the men’s singles gold medal and the 17-year-old did not disappoint with four straight sets victories, beating Takashi Sanada 6-3 7-5 in the all-Japanese final.
Having lost out to Khanthasit in the semi-finals at the 2014 Asian Para Games, Kamiji found herself drawn to meet the former champion in her opening women’s singles match in Hangzhou. However, the trajectory of their respective careers since their 2014 meeting in Incheon continued to favour Kamiji as the world No. 2 dropped just one game to move into this year’s semi-finals and she eased past the host nation’s Zhenzhen Zhu 6-2 6-0 to earn her second successive Asian Para Games title.
Kamiji added the women’s doubles title partnering Manami Tanaka, but any hopes of a Japanese clean sweep of the gold medals came to an end in the men’s doubles semi-finals after third seeds Mohamad Yusshazwan Bin Yusuf and Abu Samah Borhan edged out Takuya Miki and Sanada 1-6 6-3 (10-3) to earn Malaysia’s first men’s wheelchair tennis medal at the Asian Para Games.
Parapan American Games
Chile topped the wheelchair tennis medal table at the 2023 Parapan American Games, much to the delight of the home supporters, but it was Gustavo Fernandez and Dana Mathewson who topped the men’s and women’s singles podiums at the last of the year’s Regional Games to earn their qualification slots for Paris 2024.
While Kunieda’s retirement at the start of the year ended any thoughts of a fourth successive Asian Para Games gold medal, that’s exactly what Fernandez achieved in Santiago, slicing through the top of the men’s singles draw with four straight sets wins, ending with a 6-2 6-0 victory over home favourite Alexander Cataldo that sparked emotional scenes in the Argentinian’s camp.
There was also plenty of emotion for Mathewson as the 2019 bronze medallist brought the curtain down on her Parapan American Games career with her first gold medal. Since her victory over, Angelica Bernal, the American has since got married and she intends to retire after the Paris 2024 Paralympics, but she can go into what is expected to be her last season on tour knowing that her place in Paris is all but booked.
While Fernandez and Mathewson were also part of the gold medal-winning partnerships in the men’s and women’s doubles, Chile topped the quad singles and doubles podiums thanks to Francisco Cayulef and Diego Perez.