Ahmet Kaplan: 'It's so exciting to be playing in my home country'
For Ahmet Kaplan and his teammates in the Turkiye quad team, playing on home soil at the 2024 BNP Paribas World Team Cup in Antalya is the opportunity of a lifetime. To win a medal would be a dream.
Kaplan was eight years old when, in 2010, the same year that Antalya hosted the World Team Cup World Group for the first time, he lost his legs as the result of being electrocuted.
“I lost my two legs and my fingers and some of my fingers are not working,” he says. After the accident I spent a long time at home. Before the accident I had so much energy. I was playing a lot of sports and a lot of games. But after the accident and during the long time I was at home I got very bored. I eventually told myself. ‘I'm not like that person’.”
Kaplan’s first wheelchair sport after his accident was wheelchair basketball, but at the age of 18 he was introduced to wheelchair tennis.
“I started to play wheelchair basketball in my city and went to practice with them for a couple of months and I really liked it, but then the club had to close,” he recalls. “My coach came to me and said he could find me some different basketball team, but he encouraged me to try an individual sport like tennis and told me to give it a try. He gave me a contact and I met with my first coach and that’s how my life changed. I was at home getting bored and now I’m going all around the world. I love it.”
Now 22, Kaplan’s success in wheelchair tennis has taken significant steps since the beginning of 2023. Part of Turkiye’s World Team Cup team for the first time in 2022, last year he was part of the team that won the quad event at the World Team Cup European Qualification in Antalya, a short distance from the venue for this week’s World Group.
He started this week at a new career-best of No.11 in the quad singles on the UNIQLO Wheelchair Tennis Tour Rankings. The week got even better when Kaplan and his teammates Ugur Altinel and Ali Ataman earned a 2-1 victory over nine-time champions USA on the opening day of play, much to the delight of the home fans
“It's so exciting to be playing in my country. I love all of courts, I love everywhere. It's so exciting and we are trying to do our best. We really want to win this year, we don't want to miss that chance,” Kaplan declared after beating USA.
Turkiye have since beaten two-time champions Australia to remain unbeaten after two of their three round-robin group ties, with a place in the semi-finals within reach for the first time.
“I want to advertise wheelchair tennis. The last couple of years we’ve had a lot of tournaments in Turkey and wheelchair tennis is getting bigger. I really want people to come and support us. That would be very nice. When we are on the courts, when we are doing our best and suffering and they watch us, when they clap we are getting more and more motivated. I have family and friends coming and it will be nice to have the support from all around Turkey.”
A World Team Cup World Group medal, if achieved, would be the third international medal for Kaplan in the last 12 months after he reached the podium twice at the inaugural European Para Championships last August.
“Those were the best days of my life and I really was the happiest person in the world.” he says as he remembers the success in Rotterdam. “I got the bronze medal from singles and the next day I played with Ugur in doubles. We lost in the final, but we got the silver medal. That was so good because although we were in Rotterdam I saw so many Turkish people there amongst the fans. It was such a good moment.”
As good moments go, there may yet be even more to come this week for Kaplan and Turkiye.