Wimbledon 2018: All-Dutch women's final set

Diede de Groot and Aniek van Koot meet for singles title 14 Jul 2018
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female wheelchair tennis player Diede de Groot plays a shot on grass

Diede de Groot is hoping to make it back to back Wimbledon titles

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By ITF and IPC

“I think I’ve been fighting and I have had to fight every match so it’s just a really good feeling that even though the players are playing well and it’s not going as easily, I still need to fight and that’s what I’ve been doing"

An all-Dutch showdown is set for the women’s singles final in Wimbledon, after Diede de Groot and Aniek van Koot won their respective semi-finals matches on Friday (13 July).

De Groot defeated South Africa’s Kgothatso Montjane 6-1, 7-5, for a chance to add to her 2018 Australian Open and make up for the final she dropped at June’s Roland Garros.

“Last year (at Wimbledon) I was number three or four in the world and it was my first time on grass, so I actually didn’t have any expectations at all,” said world No. 1 de Groot. “I just wanted to have fun and I think I did that very well last year and now that’s completely changed.”

Her finals opponent van Koot won a thrilling marathon third set tiebreak 13-11 for a come-from-behind victory over Japan’s second seed Yui Kamiji.

De Groot leads van Koot, 7-4 head-to-head.

“I have played against Aniek a lot and every match is different, so I just have to play my best tennis,'' de Groot said.

“This week I’m just happy with my mentality,” the 21-year-old added. “I think I’ve been fighting and I have had to fight every match so it’s just a really good feeling that even though the players are playing well and it’s not going as easily, I still need to fight and that’s what I’ve been doing."

Men’s singles

Sweden’s defending singles champion Stefan Olsson is also back in the title match, and will meet Argentina’s Gustavo Fernandez on Sunday (15 July) in a replay of the 2017 final.

Olsson extended his winning sequence on grass with another accomplished performance, defeating British world No. 2 Alfie Hewett 6-2, 6-4.

For Fernandez, runner-up last month at Roland Garros, it will be a second successive Grand Slam singles final after he defeated Belgium’s Joachim Gerard 6-1, 4-6, 6-2.

Doubles finals

Olsson will also feature alongside Gerard in Saturday’s men’s doubles final after the duo upset French top seeds Stephane Houdet and Nicolas Peifer 6-1, 3-6, 7-5 in their semi-final.

It will be the first time in three years that Houdet and Peifer have not been in the final.

Defending champions Hewett and fellow Brit Gordon Reid managed to hold on in a thrilling semi-final to deny Fernandez and Japan’s Shingo Kunieda 6-4, 3-6, 8-6(3).

De Groot and Kamiji will wait to face the winner of Saturday's other semi-final between Germany's Sabine Ellerbock and Great Britain's Lucy Shuker against an the all-Dutch partnership of Marjolein Buis and van Koot.