Vink clinches first Grand Slam singles title on Roland Garros debut
Dutchman Niels Vink completed a 6-4 7-6(8) victory over compatriot Sam Schroder in the quad singles final at Roland Garros on Sunday, securing the 19-year-old world No. 1 his first Grand Slam singles title.
The match had been suspended just two points in to the second-set tiebreak on Saturday after the dark rain clouds that had hovered over Paris for much of the late afternoon finally burst. Schroder was leading 2-0 in the second set breaker, but it was Vink who started the stronger when play resumed on Sunday morning.
“Difficult,” was Vink’s response when asked how he had found the overnight suspension of play. ”I had to start in a tiebreak at 2-0 down. So I have to be there on the first point. Then, yeah, it happened.”
He wa definetly 'there' on the first point when play resumed and, in fact, won six of the first seven points played before coming from 8-7 down to wrap up victory.
Vink has proved to be the dominant player in the quad category since the retirement of 15-time Grand Slam champion Dylan Alcott in January. It was Schroder, the winner at the Australian Open, who took over Alcott’s world No. 1 ranking after the Aussie great retired – but Vink surpassed his friend just four weeks later, and had beaten Schroder on all three occasions they had faced one another between the Australian Open and Roland Garros.
Reaching the No. 1 ranking, however, was just one thing on the list of career goals for Vink.
“Yeah, I have achieved a lot. A lot of my dreams,” he acknowledged. “But, yeah, I had one dream that I hadn't completed, and that was winning a Grand Slam. Now I have one. That's a dream that came true.”
Cause for celebration, surely - perhaps even more so given that Vink was making his Roland Garros debut this year. But while Vink’s smile indicated how happy he was with his maiden major singles title, his attention was already turning to further chances to win titles.
“Today I'm going to celebrate, of course,” he said. “But tomorrow I fly to Nice for another tournament, the French Riviera Open, which will start on Wednesday, so I have to be focused again. My next goal is to win that tournament of course. And then, yeah, to win more Grand Slams.”
Schroder competed well against his younger countryman this weekend – and he has the consolation of the quad doubles title that he and Vink won together on Friday. But defeat will surely inspire the two-time Grand Slam champion to work even harder in order to reign Vink in.
For now though, it is Vink who will claim the headlines and dominate the spotlight – something that the sport’s newest Grand Slam champion richly deserves.
“Since I was a little kid I watched tennis on the TV,” he said. “I didn't know it was Roland Garros. I just thought it was a tournament on the orange stuff. I really liked it. Now I won this tournament. That's incredible.”
Two other matches were held over from Saturday following the poor weather in Paris. Diede de Groot and Aniek van Koot returned to court to complete a 7-6(5) 1-6 [10-8] victory over Yui Kamiji and Kgothatso Montjane, with the match having been suspended overnight at 4-4 in the match tiebreak.
Prospects of Montjane becoming the first African woman to win a Grand Slam wheelchair title improved as she and Kamiji took the first two points after the resumption, but from 6-4 down De Groot and Van Koot proved too consistent for their opponents.
And in the men’s doubles final, the last match of the wheelchair tournament at this year’s Roland Garros to get underway, the British pair of Alfie Hewett and Gordon Reid managed to maintain their incredible Grand Slam winning streak, defeating Gustavo Fernandez and Shingo Kunieda 7-6(5) 7-6(5) to win their 10th consecutive major doubles title together.
Hewett and Reid are now the only partnership to have claimed three men's doiubles titles at Roland Garros.