Japan's Kamiji and Tanaka end 32-year Dutch reign in women's doubles
For the first time in Paralympic Wheelchair Tennis history, a non-Dutch team have won women’s doubles gold and the richly deserved plaudits belong to Japan’s Yui Kamiji and Manami Tanaka.
In the maiden Paralympic Wheelchair Tennis doubles final to be decided by a match tiebreak, Kamiji and Tanaka recovered from a set down to beat Diede de Groot and Aniek van Koot 4-6 7-6(3) 10-8 – a seismic and monumental victory in equal measure.
Shocks, if that is the right phrase, and national firsts have been a feature of the Paris 2024 Paralympic Wheelchair Tennis Event and Kamiji and Tanaka have certainly fanned the flames of that narrative.
The duo are the first Japanese women to win Paralympic Wheelchair Tennis gold in either singles or doubles after outmanoeuvring and ultimately outperforming the defending champions, whose record is fearsome to say the least.
Kamiji’s long wait for a gold, however, is over. During her three previous Paralympic appearances, Kamiji has lost two finals and, while a silver and two bronze medals is an impressive medal haul, the top of the podium is where the 30-year-old has yearned to be.
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“I am really happy. I was just really emotional, and I saw all my friends and my team – they all came out here today – and I am just so unbelievably happy,” said world No. 2 Kamiji, who was born with spina bifida.
“It is really tough to have lost in Paralympic finals. Players have gold medals and they have that achievement forever, but today we didn’t bother about any of that, we just focused on our game and tried to keep pressure on them. It worked.
“The Dutch are always at the top level, but I see them and fight against them and know what it takes to get to that level. I hope we showcased today that it is possible to beat them.
“Today we made history and, at the moment, this is the best moment of my career, but that might change. I still have one more match to go.
“I’d like to thank the legends of wheelchair tennis before us. They played and that’s why we can play now. It’s not just the two of us who did this by ourselves. It’s the work of every player before us who pushed us and encouraged us.”
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As she alludes, Kamiji’s Paris 2024 adventure could yet get even better as tomorrow she will come face-to-face with De Groot again in the women’s singles final – a repeat of the Tokyo 2020 women’s singles gold medal match.
Tanaka’s Games are now done but what a climax. The 28-year-old, who made her Paralympic debut at Tokyo 2020, was in tears at the moment of victory and clearly overcome with the emotion of a career-defining triumph.
“I am still in a dream,” said Tanaka, who was left paralysed from the waist down after severely injuring her spine in a freak accident when she slipped and fell on ice-covered stairs outside of her house.
De Groot and Van Koot, meanwhile, were bidding to become the second team to win the women’s doubles gold medal at consecutive Paralympic Games after Esther Vergeer and Maaike Smit did so at the 2000 Paralympic Games in Sydney and then at Athens 2004.
It would have been the second gold medal of the Games for Netherlands after that of Sam Schroder and Niels Vink in yesterday’s quad doubles final.
“The numbers around Dutch success since 1992 are really insane, but they’re not really important,” said world No. 1 De Groot. “It’s more important that we play our game. We didn’t do that today and that’s really annoying.”