Zhu among first-time UNIQLO Wheelchair Doubles Masters champions
One year on from Zhu Zhenzhen and Wang Ziying becoming the first all-Chinese partnership to reach a UNIQLO Wheelchair Doubles Masters final, Zhu made the latest historic breakthrough for wheelchair tennis in China when she partnered Yui Kamij to become 2025 women’s doubles champions in Huzhou.
Zhu was one of three new names added to the Doubles Masters roll of honour on the penultimate day of the season-ending championships for the world’s top players in Huzhou, with Ruben Spaargaren capping a fantastic first full season as a men’s doubles partnership with Martin de la Puente.
Meanwhile, Guy Sasson became just the second Israeli player to earn a Singles or Doubles Masters title after winning the quad doubles alongside Niels Vink at the end of their first season as a partnership.
Zhu’s victory with Kamiji in the women’s doubles was a fitting end to the ITF’s year-end championships being hosted in China for the first time, but either way the host nation was guaranteed at least one champion, with Zhu and Kamiji lining up in the decider against Li Xiaohui and Wang.
Any pre-final predictions that reigning Australian Open, Wimbledon and US Open champions Li and Wang might repeat their round-robin group win over Kamiji and Zhu would have been foolish, with Kamiji and Zhu having been finalists at all eight tournaments that they have played together since 2023.
What is more, their round-robin group match – and the first ever meeting between the partnerships - ended in a 6-2 2-6 (10-8) win in favour of Li and Wang, suggesting that it was a title decider that was far too close to call.
A little less than 18 months ago Zhu told ITFTennis.com that “it was persistency and tenacity that kept me fighting to finally reach this level,” when she became the first Chinese player to reach a Grand Slam singles final at Roland Garros 2024.
That same persistency and tenacity was evident from both Kamij and Zhu as they battled back from losing a one-side first set to prevail 1-6 6-0 (10-8) in the final and claim their sixth doubles title together.
De la Puente and Spaargaren’s doubles title tally as a partnership had already reached seven before they lined up for the men’s doubles final against three-time champions Alfie Hewett and Gordon Reid, the Spanish Dutch team having enjoyed a phenomenal first season-partnership that had included winning their first Grand Slam title together at Wimbledon.
That Wimbledon victory came at the expense of Hewett and Reid, who nevertheless led De la Puente and 3-2 in their previous head-to-heads this season, having retired from their recent Paris Masters final.
However their was no sign of a retirement from either partnership in their title decider in Huzhou as the quality of tennis got better and better as the match went deep into a deciding match tie-break.
In the event, Hewett and Reid saved three match points before earning a match point of their own. Had they taken it, the British duo would have become the first four-time winning partnership of the men’s doubles at the Doubles Masters, but it was not to be and De la Puente and Spaargaren finally edged a dramatic encounter 6-4 1-6 14-12 to give De la Puente his third Doubles Masters crown in four years and Spaargaren his first title at the year-end showpiece,
Like De la Puente and Spaargaren, Sasson and Vink had also won seven titles together in their maiden season as a doubles partnership before arriving in Huzhou, and there was no stopping the top seeds at the season finale.
Sasson and Vink dropped no more than three games in any one set as they secured both of their round-robin group matches in straight sets and they again proved dominant in the final against Heath Davidson and Andy Lapthorne.
Davidson had partnered Vink to Doubles Masters victory in Florida in 2019, in what is now the first of six successive Doubles Masters titles for the Dutchman, and while the Australian and two-time Doubles Masters champion Andy Lapthorne were looking to build on their French Riviera Open title in October, the Anglo-Australian second seeds were unable to breakthrough against Sasson and Vink.
After falling behind 3-0, Davidson and Lapthorne were limited to winning back-to-back games midway through the opening set, but they were denied any further success as Sasson and Vink sealed a 6-2 6-0 victory.