With the medal matches approaching, the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic women’s singles draw could not be more perfectly poised. After three rounds and 28 matches, the top four seeds will contest Thursday’s semi-finals. At the top of the draw, Diede De Groot, the world No. 1, awaits Great Britain’s Jordanne Whiley, the No. 4 seed. At the foot of the bracket is Yui Kamiji, world No. 2 and Japan’s torchbearer, taking on No. 3 Aniek van Koot.

For the top two seeds, there is only one medal that matters. Both De Groot and Kamiji have been open about their dreams of reaching the top step of the podium in Tokyo, and the years-long preparations focused on this moment. And sat up in the players’ boxes at Ariake Tennis Park are two coaches, Amanda Hopmans and Geraint Richards, tasked with guiding them to gold.

It is a tale of two coaches – Richards, the wheelchair tennis lifer drawn back into the sport after four years on the sidelines; and Hopmans, the convert who came to the sport cold when twinned with a hot prospect.

Richards is still getting used to pulling on a Japan tracksuit in Tokyo after years of service to the British wheelchair tennis scene, with one of his former charges providing the first links with Kamiji.

“I’ve known Geraint for the longest time, for 15 years,” Kamiji said. “He coached Jordanne Whiley when we were playing doubles, and he was also the Great Britain’s national team manager. We would sometimes go to dinner together, so we knew each other well. He knows a lot about women’s wheelchair tennis so that’s why I wanted to ask him for help.

“I watched Shingo Kunieda get the gold medal in London – I saw it all up close, and that made me want to win my own gold. In Rio I was aiming for the gold as well, but obviously I couldn’t make it. I’ve worked really hard for the past five years to win it here.

“I want to get a gold medal at the Paralympics, I want to be world No. 1 once again, and I want to win the Wimbledon title. I have a lot of things that I want to achieve. And it’s not only Geraint but a lot of people who are supporting me. I’m very grateful.”

Richards began life as a coach in 2000, joining the National Tennis Centre in Cardiff, Wales, where he soon established clubs for wheelchair tennis and for players with learning difficulties.

By 2006, he had been appointed junior wheelchair tennis coach for Great Britain before becoming women’s wheelchair coach in 2009, a role he held during the London 2012 Paralympics. Soon after he moved into the role of GB’s performance director through the Rio 2016 Paralympic cycle – experiences he believes played its part in Kamiji’s decision to approach him after parting ways with her coach of 14 years shortly after the US Open.

“She thought I might just have a little bit of expertise and insight into a home Games,” said Richards. “She knew we’d smashed our medal target at Rio 2016 – that probably gave me some credit in the bank, so she asked me to come on board. And a lot of coaches in Japan are great coaches, but don’t know much about wheelchair tennis. She just wanted me to impart my wheelchair knowledge.”

Their early partnership was shaped by the realities of Covid-19, beginning over video calls in late 2020. Richards played the role of advisor as Kamiji worked with a Japanese coach, but by the end of Roland Garros she had decided to bring him into the fold in person.

“I’ve been with her since the end of Wimbledon,” Richards said. “I came out to Japan the day after Wimbledon, about nine or 10 weeks ago.”

While Kamiji and Richards gauge their partnership in weeks, Hopmans and De Groot can mark theirs by years, or even Paralympic cycles. Hopmans, a former WTA world No. 72, began working with De Groot in October 2014, almost two years before the 24-year-old made her Paralympic debut in Rio, where she won a silver in doubles.

Back in 2014, the only wheelchair tennis player Hopmans knew was Dutch legend Esther Vergeer. “I didn’t know anything about wheelchair tennis,” she said. “I had come from the able-bodied coaching world so I was really neutral to start with. We started from there, and here we are now.

“There are a lot of similarities in coaching wheelchair and able-bodied players. The big difference is the mobility. For you and I, we don’t know how it feels, and especially in the beginning when we started working together I was asking a lot about that. Of course, I’m not feeling that at all, but we’re talking about it. That’s the big difference, but the rest is quite similar – especially in women’s tennis.”

Hopmans’ first impression of De Groot was that of a hard worker with a “closed” personality, with plenty of talent but a “loose and unstructured” game. Seven years on, De Groot has risen to become the leading lady in women’s wheelchair tennis, winning singles and doubles titles at all four Grand Slams, including a 2019 doubles calendar slam with Aniek van Koot, her partner in the women’s doubles gold medal match in Tokyo.

“She’s someone who helps me a lot,” De Groot says of Hopmans. “She knows exactly what’s going on in my head even though I’m not telling her, or not saying at that moment. She knows exactly what’s going on. And I think that’s very important when you’re trying to help someone, knowing what to say, knowing what to do, and she does that very well.”

“I try to focus on the process – not on the results, but on the game,” Hopamsn said of her coaching style. “That’s what I need to do – to help her improve with every match, and this season has been no different. But of course, this is the Paralympics. Even compared to the Grand Slams, there is a difference. The whole atmosphere is different. But I like to focus on the process.”

What changes does Hopmans see in De Groot today, compared to the 17-year-old she met in 2014?

“The biggest difference in Diede between then and now is in her personality,” Hopmans offers of the world No. 1. “Because of her results, she has to do a lot of things that are out of her comfort zone, and she has gotten better at that as well. Overall, compared to 2014, she is a completely different person and player.”

De Groot’s rise is another reason for Richards’ appointment. Before she reached the top of the UNIQLO Wheelchair Tennis ranks for the first time in March 2018, The Japanese left-hander had been the player to beat. To date, the duo have met 37 times, the Dutchwoman leading their head-to-head record 22-15.

“She’s been No. 1, she’s been overtaken by Diede, and now she just wants to try find ways to beat Diede and get back to that No. 1 spot,” said Richards, who simply couldn’t turn down the chance to offer his experience of navigating a home Paralympics with the world No. 2. And while there have been sleepless nights in the lead-up to Tokyo 2020, he has not been disappointed by Kamiji’s commitment.

“She’s unbelievable to work with,” he said. “It’s so refreshing to be able to work with someone who just wants to get on court and learn to be better, and works her socks off to try and be better. It’s often the case that I have to pull her back – we’re doing five or six hours a day, six days a week. If she has a good session, she want to go back and make it even better. It’s mind-blowing.”

Richards has been every bit as blown away with Kamiji’s profile as one of Japan’s leading Paralympians. The 27-year-old was one of three torchbearers to light the Paralympic Flame in the Opening Ceremony, a huge honour but another potential distraction ahead of arguably the biggest event of her career.

“I hope I’m making a difference,” he said. “Hopefully I’m helping her get through this period and perform at her home Games. When we did London 2012 it was a bit different, there were lots of British Paralympians. Here, in terms of Japan’s Paralympians, Shingo and Yui are elevated almost about everybody else, so the pressure on them is absolutely unbelievable.

“But lighting the flame, she’ll have that forever. To have been a part of that, and to have helped her through all this, it’s been an honour.”