Wheelchair tennis: new competition and draws – Roland-Garros

Women’s wheelchair singles: Diede de Groot – Xiaohui Li in the first round

There were gasps in the auditorium when the draw was made. In the women’s singles, the first-round match-up between legend of the sport world No.1 Diede de Groot and Xiaohui Li certainly had people talking.

And with good reason: at the BNP Paribas World Team Cup on 14 May, the Chinese player put an end to the Dutchwoman’s extraordinary run of victories. To everyone’s surprise, the player with four Roland Garros titles, unbeaten in a staggering 143 matches, fell to the world No.13 6-3, 6-2.

France’s world No.18 Pauline Deroulede and world No.25 Emmanuelle Morch will need to put in a strong performance to overcome world No.4 Aniek van Koot and world No.10 Lizzy de Greef respectively.

With the Paralympic Games just around the corner, the two wildcards will also be looking to perform well in the doubles draw, where they will be up against the pairing of Dana Mathewson and Manami Tanaka. If they succeed, they could meet defending champions Yui Kamiji and Kgothatso Montjane in the semi-finals.

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