Kunieda, Kamiji and Sithole lift Japan Open titles

Japan’s wheelchair tennis players showcased their top talent ahead of next month’s Roland Garros event. 19 May 2014
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A woman in a wheelchair hits a tennis ball as a backhand.

After making her Paralympic debut at London 2012, Japan's Yui Kamiji is steadily rising in the women's wheelchair tennis singles rankings.

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By ITF

World No. 1 Shingo Kunieda produced a dominant performance as he lifted his seventh Japan Open title with a 6-0, 6-3 victory over world No. 2 ranked Frenchman Stephane Houdet.

Shingo Kunieda and Yui Kamiji secured a Japanese double in the men’s and women’s singles for the first time in the 30-year history of the wheelchair tennis Japan Open on Sunday (18 May).

World No. 1 Kunieda produced a dominant performance as he lifted his seventh Japan Open title with a 6-0, 6-3 victory over world No. 2 ranked Frenchman Stephane Houdet. Houdet is left still searching for his first title in Japan, having now played Kunieda in four finals in Iizuka since 2007. Kunieda added his name to the roll of honour for the first time since 2011.

Kamiji won the first Super Series title of her career in Iizuka in 2013 before adding two more Super Series titles before the end of last season. The 20-year-old took her career tally of Super Series crowns to four on Sunday with another confident performance against Dutch world No. 4 and two-time Japan Open champion Jiske Griffioen, Kamiji eventually retaining her title, 6-2, 6-4.

South Africa’s Lucas Sithole became the first African player to claim a singles title at the third Super Series tournament of the year on the ITF Wheelchair Tennis Tour after winning Saturday’s quad singles final in Iizuka.

Saturday’s penultimate day of play saw world No. 2 Sithole end David Wagner’s impressive sequence of seven successive Japan Open titles as South Africa’s reigning US Open champion earned a 1-6, 6-4, 6-4 victory over the American world No. 1.

Kunieda ended the tournament having claimed both the men’s singles and men’s doubles titles after partnering South Africa’s Evans Maripa to victory in the men’s doubles. Griffioen and fellow Dutchwoman Aniek van Koot lifted their first Japan Open women’s doubles title together, while Greg Hasterok and Wagner won their first Super Series together after the American top seeds sealed the quad doubles title.