De Groot bids for 100th consecutive win in Paris opener
Everytime Diede de Groot arrives on court these days, she seems to be on the brink of setting another record. And her first round match at 2023 Roland Garros will be no different – the world No. 1 will be looking to record her 100th consecutive match-victory when she takes on French wild card Emmanuelle Morch on Tuesday.
Morch will have the benefit of home support when the pair face off in the fourth match of the day on Court 12 – and she will need to be at the absolute top of her game if she is to end De Groot’s domination. De Groot is unbeaten in more than two years (with her last defeat having come to Yui Kamiji at the Melbourne Wheelchair Open in February 2021) and has won the singles title at the last nine Grand Slam tournaments. She is bidding to win her 18th major title overall this week.
As usual, it will be Kamiji who presents the biggest threat to De Groot in Paris – the world No. 2 may have lost her last 21 meetings with De Groot, but she has taken a set off the Dutchwoman in three of the pair’s six match-ups in 2023 and is, of course, a four-time champion at Roland Garros herself. Kamiji begins her tournament against China’s Zhu Zhenzhen on Tuesday.
Elsewhere in the women’s wheelchair singles opening round, the other former Roland Garros champion in the draw, Jiske Griffioen, the No. 3 seed, takes on Macarena Cabrillana, while fourth-seeded Momoko Ohtani (who beat De Groot in Paris in 2020) faces Angelica Bernal.
While De Groot might be the overwhelming favourite in the women’s draw, the men’s event is much harder to call. This will be just the second Grand Slam event since Shingo Kunieda’s retirement – and it is Great Britain’s Alfie Hewett, the world No. 1, who will hope to add to his Grand Slam tally here, having won the Australian Open in January.
Hewett is a three-time champion in Paris but he faces a tough opening round clash with Paralympic silver medallist Tom Egberink, who famously defeated Hewett in their Tokyo semifinal at the Games in 2021.
At the other end of the draw, 17-year-old Tokito Oda is seeded second and will play Daisuke Arai in the first round on Tuesday. Oda has quickly gone from being touted as a star of the future to proving himself as a star of the present – and while he is yet to win a Grand Slam title, he has been in fine form on the tour so far this year, winning both the Cajun Classic and the Japan Open in recent months.
Gustavo Fernandez is also a threat in the men’s draw, and the No. 3 seed has arrived in Paris in good form, having defeated Joachim Gerard at the Open International de Royan last week. Fernandez plays USA’s Casey Ratzlaff in the first round on Tuesday, while Gerard, seeded fourth, will face French wild card Frederic Cattaneo.
The quad wheelchair division has been dominated by a pair of Dutchmen since the retirement of Dylan Alcott last year – and, having contested the final at the last four Grand Slam events, it would be unsurprising if Niels Vink and Sam Schroder face off for the title once again at the end of the week.
Vink overcame Schroder in the final here last year to claim his first Grand Slam title, before picking up another major crown by defeating Schroder at the US Open later in the summer. But those successes were interrupted by a Wimbledon win for Schroder, who also beat Vink in the final at the Australian Open this year. If world No. 2 Schroder needs any extra motivation this week, a title victory in Paris would see him become just the fourth wheelchair tennis player to complete the Grand Slam in singles.
Roland Garros debutant Robert Shaw will be Vink’s opponent when the quad event begins on Wednesday while Schroder will be up against Donald Ramphadi. And two former finalists in Paris, Andy Lapthorne and David Wagner, will both be determined to end the Dutch stranglehold on the majors this week – the duo have been drawn against each other in the first round.
Just three players will hold singles trophies aloft at the end of the week – but, on Monday night, all 40 competitors will go to bed dreaming of Parisian glory.