Hewett and De Groot retain ABN AMRO Open titles in Rotterdam
Alfie Hewett and Diede de Groot retained their men’s and women’s wheelchair singles titles at the 2024 ABN AMRO Open as the Rotterdam tournament once again provided a high profile showcase for wheelchair tennis.
Once again, the first tournament on the 2024 UNIQLO Wheelchair Tennis Tour to be integrated into an ATP Tour event, the event’s dedicated wheelchair arena proved highly popular throughout the five days of competition and especially over finals weekend as first De Groot and then Hewett lifted their latest winners’ trophies.
“I would love to move the (wheelchair) tour here because I seem to play my best tennis in Rotterdam,” joked top seed and world No. 2 Hewett after beating world No.6 Joachim Gerard 6-2 6-3 in the men’s singles final for his 15h successive match in Rotterdam since 2000.
“I remember when I came here the first time and looked up on the walls of the arena and saw all the past champions, I just wanted to get my picture up there the one time. So, to now come back here next year and see it five times is something special. This is a magnificent event for wheelchair tennis. It’s one of the most special events for wheelchair players to compete at.”
After dropping his opening service game of the final, Hewett reeled off five games in a row on his way to taking the first set and while Gerard held his own serve for the first time early in the second set his challenge eventually faded as Hewett took the last three games to lift his second singles title of 2024 after three straight sets wins in three days.
View this post on Instagram
Jiske Griffioen took more games off De Groot in the women’s singles final than she had since making her comeback to wheelchair tennis towards the end of 2019.
However, while the world No.3 had opportunities to open up a 4-2 lead on De Groot in the first set it was not to be and the defending champion held on for a narrow 7-5 7-5 victory.
It was a second closely-fought women’s singles final for De Groot in Rotterdam in successive years after the world No.1 earned a 3-6 6-4 6-2 win over Yui Kamiji in the inaugural women’s title decider in 2023. But regardless of the circumstances the record books will show a 138th successive singles won for De Groot.
Griffioen was able to smile after her performance in the singles final and she had even more reason to smile after the women’s doubles final, when De Groot was on the same side of the net. De Groot and Griffioen recorded a 6-0 6-4 victory over Lizzy de Greef and Aniek in an all-Dutch final in front of a home crowd.
While De Groot left Rotterdam with two titles, Hewett’s hopes of also retaining the men’s doubles title with fellow Brit Gordon Reid were ended in the semi-finals as Tom Egberink and Maikel Scheffers gave the home supporters more reason to celebrate.
Egberink and Scheffers edged top seeds Hewett and Reid 1-6 6-4 (10-6) but their bid to end the tournament with a third Dutch victory in four finals came to an end as Gerard gained some recompense for finishing runner-up in the men’s singles.
Having earned a narrow victory over Martin de la Puente in the men’s singles semi-finals, Gerard teamed up with the Spaniard to come through a rollercoaster of a doubles final against Egerink and Scheffers 6-2 0-6 (10-6).