Hometown hero Kunieda crowned Tokyo 2020 Paralympic champion
Shingo Kunieda provided the perfect finale for host nation Japan at the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Wheelchair Tennis Event, the hometown hero producing an outstanding performance to blitz Dutchman Tom Egberink 6-1 6-2 and seal his fourth Paralympic gold medal.
The world No. 1, a doubles champion at Athens 2004 before back-to-back singles triumphs at Beijing 2008 and London 2012, has now claimed the third singles gold medal of his career. He becomes the first player to triumph on home soil since David Hall won gold at Sydney 2000, and the only player to win medals at five different Paralympic Games, having won doubles bronze at Rio 2016 while nursing a persistent shoulder injury.
“My dreams came true,” Kunieda said. “I wanted very much this result, but this year I haven’t won a lot – just one time, in Australia – so I have doubted myself. But I told myself, I can do it, I know what to do out there on court.
“After Rio, I thought about retirement many times because of my elbow injury, so I can’t believe this result. I want to tell myself, ‘Good job’.”
It was a display of relentless intensity and tactical mastery from Kunieda, who bounced back from being broken in the opening game in dramatic fashion. Mixing up high balls that negated Egberink's devilish slice backhand and some canny combinations to keep the No. 8 seed from unleashing his heavy forehand with any regularity. The 37-year-old Japanese player picked apart his opponent's defences time and again.
For Egberink, who previously had not been beyond the round of 16 at a Paralympic Games, his Tokyo 2020 campaign ends with singles silver and doubles bronze, won alongside Maikel Scheffers against Kunieda and Takashi Sanada on Friday.
“I was the underdog the whole week,” said Egberink, who heads to his second Grand Slam at the US Open next week. “I was totally relaxed all day today, but then on the court, taking the lead 1-0 and having a chance to go 2-0, that was a shame I didn’t take that. And after that I was a bit tight, I wasn’t relaxed any more.
“But it’s amazing – my dreams came true,” said the 28-year-old. “I just talked with Gordon [Reid] – I’ve played with him since juniors in Tarbes, playing finals over there. And look at us now: we’re on the podium with the No. 1 in the world. Who would have thought that when we were 15 years old?”
Egberink resolved to play his own game in the second set, and even with the scoreline against him, the Dutchman refused to go down without a fight, saving four gold medal points with some fearless hitting before finally netting a forehand.
With that, those volunteers and Japanese support staff among those on Centre Court to bear witness at Ariake Tennis Park broke out into excited applause as Kunieda, draped in the Japanese flag, let the tears flow.
“It was three times, maybe 10 times more pressure than a normal Paralympics in another country,” Kunieda admitted. “But because I faced the pressure and overcame, the happiness I feel now is also more, 100 per cent.”
Reid rebounds for singles bronze following doubles heartbreak
In the all-British bronze medal match, Rio 2016 gold medallist Gordon Reid came out on top of a see-sawing contest with Alfie Hewett, claiming the fourth Paralympic medal of his career with a 6-4 3-6 7-5 victory.
The weight of Friday’s doubles final defeat, which ended Hewett and Reid’s hopes of adding Paralympic doubles gold to their burgeoning collection of Grand Slam titles and a calendar Golden Slam in 2021, hung heavy over the match. Neither player expressed much emotion bar the occasional fit of frustration from Hewett, despite the quality of the contest.
“It doesn't feel like I am a winner today at the moment,” Reid said. “But I am sure once the emotions settle down, I will be proud of the fact I have won another singles medal and have the full collection, so it is quite a cool thing to do.
“After the doubles final and all the emotion that we went through together as a team, we both said that playing against each other the next day was the last thing we wanted to do. Obviously there has to be a winner, but it was the most difficult match I had ever played in my life.”
Reid claimed the only break of the opener in game nine before serving out the set, and Hewett's work in levelling up with a solitary break in the second looked set to be for naught when the Scot opened up a 3-0 lead early in the third.
But the 23-year-old got the set back on track with Reid serving for the medal at 5-3, only to succumb in a marathon final game that ended the contest after two hours, 22 minutes.
“We just hated that match, it was horrible,” admitted Hewett, who now has three Paralympic silver medals having reached the singles and doubles finals at Rio 2016.