Japanese wheelchair tennis stars sweep at Wimbledon

As Wimbledon and the grass season of wheelchair tennis drew to a close last month, several new champions were crowned—some familiar and some not so familiar. However, the standout winner had to be Japan’s Yui Kamiji who won her singles against Dutch player Diede de Groot and won her first-ever Wimbledon singles title in wheelchair tennis. Kamiji also won the doubles title with Zhu Zhenzhen of China against defending champions Li Xiaohui and Wang Ziying (both also of China), taking home her ninth Wimbledon doubles title. The win was Zhenzhen’s second doubles title. On the men’s side, Japan’s Tokito Oda defended his title by defeating Britain’s Alfie Hewett.

With this win, Kamiji also completed the Golden Slam in singles, achieving a title that few hold throughout all of tennis, and further cemented her number one ranking in singles wheelchair tennis. A Golden Slam is when a tennis player wins all four Grand Slam tournaments (the Australian Open, French Open, U.S. Open and Wimbledon) as well as an Olympic gold medal. 

Yui Kamiji celebrating her victory.

Tony O Brian

This achievement also follows an incredibly successful doubles run as Kamiji also completed a Golden Slam in doubles wheelchair tennis—but now she becomes one of six wheelchair athletes to hold the Golden Slam title in their singles career. These include de Groot, Shingo Kunieda, Oda, Dylan Alcott, and Niels Vink. With these wins, Kamiji joins Oda and Kunieda as the third Japanese wheelchair tennis player to achieve a Golden Slam.

For Oda, his win against Hewett marks his third Grand Slam title this year, and if he wins the U.S Open this fall, he’d complete the Calendar Slam (which happens when an athlete wins all four Grand Slam titles in the span of one year).