Wheelchair tennis at the Paris Paralympic Games delivered its second gold medal shocker in as many days at Roland Garros, as defending Women’s Singles gold medalist and World No. 1 player Diede de Groot fell to Japan’s Yui Kamiji Friday in a rematch of the gold medal match from Tokyo.
The Dutch superstar recovered after dropping the first three games of the first set to take it 6-4, but Yui bounced back in a second set that went back and forth before the second-ranked player in the world closed out the set with three straight games, 6-3.
That pattern presented itself again in the third set as the two battled to a 3-3 tie before Yui began to pull away. De Groot tried to right the ship, but Yui’s pressure wouldn’t let up. The gold medal-clinching point for Yui came off de Groot’s 17th double fault of the match.
Both players embraced each other as tears began to flow after the match.
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The loss was de Groot’s first in singles competition at a major tournament since the 2020 French Open. She hadn’t dropped a match in Grand Slam or Paralympic competition since losing to Momoko Ohtani in the semifinals at Roland Garros. Yui wound up winning that tournament, defeating Momoko in straight sets.
The win secured a gold medal sweep, the same feat accomplished by de Groot at the Tokyo Games, for Yui after she and Tanaka Manami defeated de Groot and Women’s Singles bronze medalist Aniek van Koot in the Women’s Doubles gold medal match Thursday.
It also marked the first time in Paralympic history that a Dutch woman didn’t leave the games with a gold medal in any discipline of wheelchair tennis since the sport was officially adopted in 1992. Yui is now the first Japanese woman to win gold medals in both Women’s Doubles and Singles in Paralympic history.
It was fitting that de Groot lost the final point of the match on a double fault as unforced errors defined her struggles during the match. Her 17 double faults contributed to an overall unforced error total of 49 against Yui’s 24.
Despite the loss, de Groot’s silver medal adds to her already well-decorated record at the Paralympic Games. She now holds five total medals after securing two silver medals in Paris.
