South Africa's Ramphadi eyeing Vink upset and place in Wimbledon final

South Africa's Donald Ramphadi is confident he can upset the world’s best quad player when the duo meet in Friday's quad singles semi-final.

Ramphadi, who turned 30-years-old last month, is playing just his second season of Grand Slam tournaments and has an immense task in store against Niels Vink of the Netherlands, who despite being a decade younger, has already bagged three of the eight Majors he has competed in, including Roland Garros last month.

Do not be fooled though by the mild-mannered Ramphadi, who is keen to make his mark on the game and very quickly. 

“It’s going to be a tough one,” he said. “I want to be world No. 2 or No. 1 and for me to do that I need to start beating these guys."

Ramphadi, however, has already come off worse against Vink this week following a straight sets defeat in Thursday’s quad doubles semi-final on Court No. 14, with Ramphadi and his partner Andy Lapthorne grabbing just three games.

It was a bitter blow for Ramphadi and Lapthorne who beat Vink and Sam Schroder in the Roland Garros doubles semi-finals final just five weeks ago. But there are positives.

“They are where they are for a reason, it’s great to be 1-1 on Grand Slams,” said Lapthorne. “If you had offered me and Don this we would probably have taken it. We will move on and keep learning.

“We are a young team in terms of the time we’ve played together. Roland Garros was great but you can’t expect to be doing that every week. We are learning to communicate and play the big moments better and we’ll play Tour events when there is less pressure.”

Ramphadi, who was born with brittle bone disease, still lives in South Africa where he says wheelchair tennis is rarely played. Lack of money accordingly can be an ongoing thorn.

“There’s only have one tournament in South Africa," he added. "It's really difficult to travel from there but I want to be a top player so I have to do it.

"I started playing Grand Slam tournaments early last year. I got a wild card to go and play at the Australian Open and since then I’ve been going to tournaments and getting my ranking up [he has played every Grand Slam since Melbourne in January 2022]."

There is already a heavy debt to his doubles partner Lapthorne who asked Ramphadi to double up just before Roland Garros.

“I'm learning lots from this man, for sure,” said Ramphadi. “I just told him now when we got off court that he is a legend always and I appreciate sharing a court with him.”

Stunningly, the 32-year-old Lapthorne has been playing top-flight wheelchair tennis for the past 16 years.

“I cherish these moments now, I take nothing for granted," he said. "I'm getting to an age now where it’s more difficult to compete, more difficult to get up and do it day in, day out because I've been doing it my whole adult life.

"But playing in front of a big crowd with family and friends, that’s why we get out of bed in the morning and go and train.”

Lapthorne’s longevity has allowed him a unique insight into the changing nature of the sport.

“The game is evolving and I don't know whether someone like David Wagner will be able to happen again,” he said. “I see the game moving very fast now in terms of the standard and the physicality of players and how they move and how they hit the ball. 

“It’s probably getting closer to what the non-disabled game is in terms of life span of how your career would go.  I think David is probably just an exception to the rule and is just very good at what he does.”

The 49-year-old Californian Wagner was in agreement with his former doubles partner.

“Nowadays players train more professionally to a stricter level," he said. "Extra training is more wear and tear on your body, even your stretches in the morning are wear and tear on the body. I think it’s a shorter life span than it has been in the past.”

Wagner’s new doubles partner, meanwhile, is 21-year-old Gregory Slade from Surrey, an hour’s drive from Wimbledon. The new act was a wholly random occurrence he said.

“Everyone was paired up so it was a case of let’s see who's left,” said Slade. "As a wildcard, I was waiting to see who I’d get and then it was Wags.”

A 30-minute warm-up was the extent of their on-court time together before this week and after racing to a 5-3 first set lead in their Thursday semi-final, they understandably slid as Heath Davidson and Robert Shaw came back to win in two sets.

“I thought we played really well,” said Wagner. “There was no tightness, it was more excitement that we were playing well, but it was too much too soon. We were too confident. If we’d taken the first set 6-3 or 6-4, we win the match.”

The quad singles semi-finals take place on Friday with the final on Sunday.

The doubles final between Vink/Schroder and Davidson/Shaw will be played on Saturday.