Diede de Groot has utterly dominated women’s wheelchair tennis since the start of 2021, winning 13 consecutive Grand Slam singles titles.

While her astounding streak of 145 singles wins came to an end at the World Team Cup in Antalya, Turkiye, last month, she extended her Grand Slam singles streak to 45 wins on Tuesday.

The world No. 1 stamped her authority by defeating Li Xiaohui 6-3 6-4 in the first round at Roland Garros, the same player who defeated her to secure China, P.R.’s first World Team Cup title since 2017.

“I’ve played Li a couple of times this year, but she’s a relatively new player at this level, so we don’t know her that well yet,” De Groot said after avenging her World Team Cup defeat.

“At the World Team Cup, I was too distracted and there was too much pressure at that moment. I always knew that Li could beat me, I know that every player can beat me. With Li’s strokes, her winners, you have to be so alert. I knew I needed to look at myself and see, what can I do better, and that’s what I did today.

“I made so many errors in the final of the World Team Cup. I tried to make fewer errors today.”

Li, 24, agreed that she faced a different Diede de Groot from the one she defeated in Turkiye.

“Diede was playing well and she reduced her unforced errors,” she said after making her Roland Garros debut against the three-time defending champion. “No matter what I tried, she got every ball back, so I started to feel the pressure. That was a big difference today compared to Turkiye.”

Despite the defeat, Li remains in good spirits as she is joined in the women’s event by two more Chinese players, world No. 6 Zhu Zhenzhen and world No. 10 Wang Ziying, both of whom secured career firsts by winning their matches.

Zhu, 34, defeated No. 3 seed and 4-time Grand Slam singles champion Jiske Griffioen 6-3 7-6(5) to record her first singles win at Roland Garros at her third attempt.

“Ever since I started playing Grand Slams, I felt like I was not lucky with the draws, always facing one of the top three seeds in the first round,” she said. “But I didn’t want to admit that it was just tough luck, I wanted to overcome my old self, and become a new self to win, to beat the top seeds.”

Meanwhile Wang, 25, overcame a nervy start to mark her Grand Slam debut with victory against world No. 14 Lucy Shuker 7-6(4) 6-0.

“I felt a little bit nervous and tense at the beginning, but as the game went on I eased up and everything went well,” said Wang, who came into Roland Garros after winning the biggest singles title of her career so far at the Open International de Royan last week, an ITF 1 series tournament. “I feel great having teammates also playing here at Roland Garros, especially after the World Team Cup win."

There is a real sense of competitive camaraderie among the Chinese women in Paris. Only the Dutch have more players in the women’s event with four competitors.

“Before this Roland Garros, I was pretty much the only Chinese woman playing on the tour, especially at the Grand Slams,” Zhu said. “[Li] Xiaohui played at the Australian Open, and [Wang] Ziying is playing her first Grand Slam here at Roland Garros.

“Before I was fighting alone, without much support or exposure. I was encouraging my teammates from China to come out and play the tour for some time. Now, they’ve achieved the level to play the Grand Slams too. I’ve been helping these younger players to play on the tour, because I’m the most experienced. They lean on me a bit, like an older sister, to give directions, to help them. I’m very happy to do that, and that they’ve been improving so much. It makes me push myself to improve, to raise my game even higher. It’s like we’re competing, but also supporting each other, pushing each other to get better.”

Wang added: “There will be even more Chinese players on the big stage, and we can improve together.”

On Monday, Grand Slam Tennis announced the establishment of a Wheelchair Tennis pilot as part of the Grand Slam Player Development Programme (GSPDP), awarding grants to promising players from around the world beyond the Grand Slam nations.

One recipient is women’s world No. 15 Guo Luoyao, also from China, P.R., who just missed out on competing at Roland Garros this year, as the Top 14 and two French wild cards make up the draw.

“It’s a pity that Guo Luoyao didn’t quite make the cut for Roland Garros,” Zhu said. “But she’s always improving, so hopefully at Wimbledon or another Slam soon after we will see a Chinese cohort of four players in the women’s event.”

Looking ahead, Zhu faces 20-year-old Dutch talent Lizzy de Greef, while Wang faces none other than De Groot for a place in the semi-finals.

“As long as I put out a good performance, I believe I can do something against her,” Wang said. “Of course I’ll discuss with [Li] Xiaohui about tips on how to beat her.”

Wang actually holds a 2-1 winning record against de Groot, with both wins coming before the Dutchwoman became the world-beater she has been in recent years, defeating her at the 2015 Jura Indoors in Switzerland, when de Groot was 18 years old and Wang was just 16, and again at the 2018 Melbourne Wheelchair Tennis Open.  

In the men’s singles, No. 1 seed Alfie Hewett and No. 2 seed Tokito Oda came through in straight sets against Belgium’s Joachim Gerard and Netherlands’ Ruben Spaargaren respectively.

Japan’s Oda is defending a Grand Slam title for the first time, while Hewett is seeking his fourth Roland Garros singles title, and first since 2021.

The Brit faces compatriot and doubles partner Gordon Reid in the quarter-finals next after the world No. 5 defeated home hope Stephane Houdet 7-5 6-2 in the first round.

Reid will be readying himself for battle as he hopes to perform better than his 6-1 6-0 defeat to Hewett in the quarter-finals at Roland Garros last year.

No. 3 seed and 2-time Roland Garros singles champion Gustavo Fernandez defeated Takashi Sanada 6-1 6-3, whereas No. 4 seed Martin de la Puente of Spain fell to another Japanese player in Takuya Miki, 7-5 3-6 6-4.

Women’s No. 2 seed Yui Kamiji comfortably defeated Angelica Bernal of Colombia 6-0 6-2 to reach the last eight, while No. 4 seed and de Groot’s compatriot Aniek van Koot defeated French wild card Pauline Deroulede 6-3 6-1.

The men’s and women’s wheelchair singles quarter-final matches take place on Wednesday, with the quad singles event also set to get underway.

Click here for all the latest news, draws and results from the Roland Garros Wheelchair Tennis event