Double Dutch for Tokyo 2020 doubles champs De Groot and van Koot

The Netherlands' women reign supreme for another Paralympic Games. Diede De Groot and Aniek van Koot completed the eighth successive sweep of the singles and doubles gold medals with an imperious 6-0 6-1 victory over Great Britain's Lucy Shuker and Jordanne Whiley at Tokyo 2020, a day after De Groot had won the singles gold.

Victory completes the Tokyo 2020 double for De Groot, while van Koot claims a fifth Paralympic medal after successfully defending her Rio 2016 doubles gold won with Jiske Griffioen.

Back then, De Groot was across the net with Marjolein Buis to collect silver; today, she becomes the fourth Dutchwoman to win both titles after Monique Kalkman, Esther Vergeer and Griffioen, who also won singles gold five years ago.

“Oh yes, I definitely enjoyed it,” De Groot said of Saturday’s doubles final, in stark contrast to the tension of Friday night’s singles final against Yui Kamiji.

“Even though I was really tired, it was a good match to play. Here and there we could have maybe put more pressure on them, but we just carried out the plan very well.

“The way we’ve finished it as well, it was not a tight, intense match. That can be very exciting, but it can be very stressful. Today, we were in control. We were getting that title, and we did that.”

For van Koot, defending her doubles gold medal was the perfect tonic after the disappointment of her singles bronze medal match defeat by Whiley. She joins Griffioen as the second-most decorated women’s wheelchair tennis Paralympian, their five medals eclipsed only by Vergeer’s eight.

“It means the world to me,” van Koot said following her title defence. “It’s my favourite part, the doubles, and to do it with Diede, it’s amazing, heart-warming. It gives you a sense of hope, joy, all the good feelings. Tonight, we’re going to eat pizza! And fried chicken!”

The disappointment was palpable for Whiley and Shuker, doubles bronze medallists at both London 2012 and Rio 2016, but they took solace in moving one step higher on the podium at Tokyo 2020.

“They are a really solid team,” Shuker said. “The Dutch historically have been around forever in wheelchair tennis. They really have dominated. But we got the silver medal this year – last time they got the gold and silver, bit greedy.”

For Whiley, Tokyo 2020 marks the end of her Paralympic career, and she leaves having added singles bronze and doubles silver to her medal collection.

“This was our Games,” said the 29-year-old, who said next week’s US Open was potentially the last event of her career. “Obviously we didn’t come home with the gold, but we made a lot of improvements, and if I look back on where we were five years ago I would’ve taken this.”

For van Koot and in particular De Groot, who arrived with – and delivered on – such high expectations of herself, there are now two days to enjoy their victories and celebrate as a team before flying to New York.

“We’re definitely going to cheer on Tom in the men’s final,” De Groot said. “We’re definitely here together as a group, we train together, we see each other so many times a week, so we really feel like a group as well. The atmosphere has been good, and hopefully Tom can do just as good as us.”

Kamiji and Ohtani prevail in gruelling bronze medal clash

Earlier in the final day of competition at Ariake Tennis Park, Japan's Yui Kamiji and Momoko Ohtani claimed bronze with a 6-2 7-6(3) victory over China, P.R. duo Wang Ziying and Zhu Zhenzhen.

Kamiji, one of Japan’s three torchbearers to light the Paralympic cauldron to open the Paralympics, ends Tokyo 2020 with two medals to her name after winning silver in singles, five years after claiming singles bronze at Rio 2016.

“I couldn’t sleep last night because I was frustrated,” Kamiji said of her singles defeat by De Groot. “I knew I had to be in a different mindset today because it was Momoko’s first Paralympic medal match. I didn’t want to ruin her experience. It is also really good to win the last match I play in the whole Games.”

The home hopes looked in good shape for victory after moving 3-0 ahead in the second set, but a brief stoppage in play after Zhu toppled in midcourt chasing a ball and had to reset herself in her chair, the tenor of the contest changed.

Adopting a safety-first approach, both sides resolved to give nothing away as the rallies – primarily between Zhu and Ohtani, who didn’t want to tee up the nous of Kamiji and the firepower of Wang – grew longer and longer.

Zhu and Wang recovered the break and twice denied Ohtani the chance to consolidate after Wang’s serve faltered as the second set, already 90 minutes old, entered a tiebreak.

For a moment it looked as if the contest might enter a third as the Chinese pair moved 3-0 up, but Kamiji and Ohtani stormed back to win the next seven points and seal bronze, guaranteeing that Japan will finish Tokyo 2020 with four wheelchair tennis medals, with Koji Sugeno and Mitsuteru Moroishi securing quad doubles bronze and Shingo Kunieda set to play in the men’s singles gold medal match.