The UNIQLO Interview: Amanda Hopmans

When any athlete makes sporting history there is likely to be at least one proud coach behind them to whom the same sporting history can be credited. That is certainly true of Amanda Hopmans, coach of Diede de Groot for the best part of the last five years.

Hopmans is one of a growing number of coaches on the UNIQLO Wheelchair Tennis Tour who have played and/or coached on the WTA or ATP Tours. It’s a trend that has gathered pace since Sven Groeneveld started coaching seven-time Paralympic gold medallist Esther Vergeer in 2009, with current wheelchair tennis coaches also including the likes of former Olympic medallist Claudia ohde-Kilsch.

“Diede has written history by winning Roland Garros recently, it is something to be really proud of,” says Hopmans as she reflects on the achievement of 22-year-old De Groot in becoming the first player on the UNIQLO Wheelchair Tennis Tour to hold singles titles at all four Grand Slam at the same time.

The partnership is one born out of the 2014 BNP Paribas World Team Cup.

“In May 2014, the World Team Cup was held in Alphen aan den Rijn at Tennis Centre Nieuwe Sloot, the home base where Diede has been practising since October 2014. The manager of this centre, Dave Kok, was introduced to wheelchair tennis and to Diede for the first time. At the time, Diede played for the Dutch juniors,” says Hopmans.

“A few months later Diede is looking for a new situation, trainer/coach. Dave and Diede have always kept in touch after the World Team Cup. Dave checked if I was interested in working with a good junior wheelchair tennis player.

“I was working for a Tennis Academy at Tennis Centre Nieuwe Sloot and at that time I was very unknown in the wheelchair tennis world,” she adds. “I did, however, have a lot of experience because I played on the WTA Tour for 10 years and had also gained over 10 years of experience in training and coaching with top juniors in the Netherlands. It seemed like a nice challenge to me and I decided to start training with Diede in October 2014.”

While former world No. 75 Hopmans says she is ‘sometimes working with another young player, combining with another coach at Nieuwe Sloot’, the importance that she and De Groot place on their home tennis centre and the desire to encourage the next generation of young players came to the fore after De Groot claimed the one Grand Slam needed to complete her collection.

Together they drove home from Paris so De Groot could attend a wheelchair tennis camp organised by the Esther Vergeer Foundation before returning to Paris a few days later for the BNP Paribas Open de France Super Series, where De Groot was once again victorious.

De Groot has already admitted that she doesn’t think anyone will every break Vergeer’s records, but one thing that Vergeer has that De Groot most certainly has in her sights is a Paralympic gold medal. Should she win gold in either singles or doubles in Tokyo in 2020 it will not only be 20 years on from Vergeer winning the first of her Paralympic golds. At Sydney 2000 Hopmans also graced the courts at the Sydney Olympic Park Tennis Centre as she represented Netherlands in the Olympic Tennis Event.

Having played at the top of your sport and represented your country on many occasions – Hopmans has also played in 15 Fed Cup ties for Netherlands - does not guarantee success as a coach. And like many wheelchair tennis coaches, Hopmans has been on a journey since staring to work with de Groot in 2014.

“In the beginning I had a little insight into wheelchair tennis by reading a lot, watching and especially asking Diede. The differences with tennis were not as big as what I thought,” she says. “Certainly, at the start, I did many things that I also did with young players. You want to have a good base and that is a lot narrower for wheelchair tennis players than for able-bodied players.

“The world of wheelchair tennis is so much smaller, which means that you will do well sooner and the base doesn’t have to be that high, but it is important, it gives a lot of confidence. The difference is in the mobility of course (no feet and legs use) and the most difficult thing for me is the real feeling of playing in a chair. I have tried to play but it’s very, very difficult,“ adds Hopmans.

From the time she and De Groot began working together, De Groot’s ambitions were abundantly clear.

“It was a big challenge from the start. Diede wanted to be No. 1 in the world. At that time Diede was No. 34 in the world. Step by step and the development of a broader base was the most important thing. 

“Winning the Australian Open in 2018 is a great memory for me. (It was) a long, distant journey where Diede had a very hard time mentally during the preparation tournaments and also had a lot of problems with the heat. In the end she won the second Grand Slam title in her career and she surprised herself. Mentally it was a strong, important moment for her,” recalls Hopmans.

De Groot ended 2018 as a two-time Wimbledon champion, Australian Open and US Open champion for the first time and, also for the first time, ITF World Champion, at the end of a stellar season in which she lost only four of 44 singles matches. Queue the award ceremonies.

“The Laureus Awards nomination was a nice appreciation for Diede’s performance in 2018, a very nice evening and hopefully more will follow with a win once,” says Hopmans, who accompanied De Groot to the awards ceremony in Monaco in February. “Recently the ITF World Champions Dinner during Roland Garros was again a nice appreciation for her performances.”

But it isn’t just De Groot who has been on the receiving end of the accolades and the world No.1 was present as Hopmans, ‘the very best coach I can wish for’, received the award for Coach of the Year at the Alphen aan den Rijn Sports Gala in March.

While ‘success breeds success’ is an oft used phrase in and out of sporting circles, athletes and the teams behind them are continually looking for improvements. That is, of course, no different for the team of De Groot and Hopmans.

“After the Australian Open, Diede changed her chair. The goal of her new chair is more mobility, more options in all her strokes. Diede can certainly still improve, all her strokes still stretch. Also mentally she can still grow,” says Hopmans of a player who managed to turn a 2-6 6-2 6-0 loss to Yui Kamiji in the 2018 Roland Garros final into a 6-1 6-0 victory over the same player in this year’s final.

With De Groot eyeing a third successive Wimbledon singles title in the next two weeks, Hopmans can also see the potential for growth for wheelchair tennis, too.

“I think wheelchair tennis can grow in all areas - technical, physical, mental, strategic, tactics and material - and that it can certainly be more professional in the width of the sport,” she says.

“It is great that wheelchair tennis has been integrated in WTA/ATP tournaments and especially the Grand Slams. Since I’ve worked with Diede and experienced the Grand Slams, there has been improvement every year and the Grand Slams have been very well organised for them (wheelchair players). I hope that the future for wheelchair tennis will gradually become more professional and the level will become wider and wider.”