Japan’s Yui ends 32 years of Dutch dominance in Paralympic women’s wheelchair tennis

PARIS, 7 Sep. (by EUROPA PRESS special correspondent Ramón Chamorro) –

Japanese tennis player Kamiji Yui ended the Netherlands’ impeccable record in the women’s singles wheelchair tennis draw at the Paralympic Games on Friday, beating Diede de Groot 4-6, 6-3, 6-4 in the Paris 2024 final.

Since the sport’s introduction to the programme in Barcelona’92, the women’s singles honours list had only seen Dutch players win gold, a streak that ended at the Philippe Chatrier at Roland Garros where the Asian overtook the Tokyo 2020 champion.

Monique van den Bosch was the one who started this sporting ‘dictatorship’ at the event in the Catalan capital and her compatriot Maaike Smit took over from her in Atlanta’96. From then on came the dominant era of Esther Vergeer, who chained together four golds between Sydney 200 and London 2012, while Jiski Grieffoen and Diede de Groot were the champions in Rio 2016 and Tokyo 2020.