Preview: The Championships Wheelchair Events, Wimbledon | ITF (2024)

Wheelchair tennis on the hallowed grass courts of the All England Club enters a new era this week as 40 payers line up for the wheelchair events at The Championships, Wimbledon for the first time.

Monday’s draw presents a series of early enticing match-ups as the new, expanded grass court season on the UNIQLO Wheelchair Tennis Tour reaches a fascinating climax after performances at the Rothesay International Eastbourne and the Lexus British Open Roehampton over the last two weeks have thrown up a series notable results across the men’s, women’s and quad draws.

Such is the nature of a 16-draw with just four seeded players, Tuesday’s men’s singles matches will see world No.3 Gustavo Fernandez take on world No.5 Gordon Reid in a contest between two former Wimbledon champions.

Until last week it was a rivalry that appeared, at least on paper, rather one-sided on grass courts as Reid led Fernandez 3-0 after their three grass encounters prior to their Lexus British Open Roehampton semi-final. However, Fernandez edged their most recent match-up 6-4 6-4 to give added spice to Tuesday’s meeting between the 2016 and 2019 champions.

View all of the wheelchair tennis draws at The Championships, Wimbledon here

Depending on Tuesday’s results, a potential semi-final showdown between world No.2 Hewett and Fernandez could come later in the week, with Hewett having got the better of their final at the Rothesay International Eastbourne before withdrawing ahead of their British Open final as a precaution before the third Grand Slam of the year.

Elsewhere, a year after making history as the youngest men’s singles champion at Wimbledon, world No.1 Tokito Oda opens his title defence against fellow Japanese player Tokito Oda and either Alexander Cataldo or Dani Caverzachi will secure their first singles win at a Grand Slam tournament as they make their Wimbledon debuts against each other.

De Groot-Ohtani and Kamiji-Zhu in women’s first round

A month ago this week Diede de Groot and Zhenzhen Zhu wrote themselves into the record books as they contested the women’s singles final at Roland Garros, De Groot leaving Paris having broken Esther Vergeer’s record of 21 Grand Slam singles titles and Zhu leaving the French capital having become the first Chinese player to reach a Grand Slam wheelchair singles final.

A little over four weeks later and Zhu joins three of her compatriots at SW19 as four Chinese players contest a Grand Slam wheelchair draw for the first time and De Groot looks to bounce back from a rare loss – her second of the season and her first against world No.2 Yui Kamiji since February 2024.

World No.2 Kamiji’s 7-5 6-3 victory over world No.1 De Groot in the final of the Lexus British Open Roehampton drew little reaction on match point from Kamiji, who had started 2024 by having her first match point against De Groot since beating the Dutchman in the final of the 2021 Melbourne Open. There was a distinct business-like air about Kamiji, as if she and De Groot both knew that that was their warm-up for the main event.

Both players will likely require the same business-like approach on Tuesday as De Groot plays Kamiji’s countryman Momoko Ohtani and Kamiji comes up against Zhu.

Ohtani has winning form against both of the world’s top two players at a Grand Slam, having won her 2020 quarter-final against De Groot at Roland Garros and her 2021 quarter-final against Kamiji at Wimbledon before ending Kamiji’s hopes of going beyond the quarter-finals at Roland Garros last month. Her 2024 Roland Garros campaign ended against Zhu in the semis.

Elsewhere, the women’s draw will see one member of the quartet, Luoyao Guo, make her Grand Slam debut against world No. 3 Jiske Griffioen, with Griffioen having kicked off her grass court campaign for 2024 with victory over Zhu in the women’s singles final in Eastbourne a little over two weeks ago.

Davidson-Vink and Lapthorne-Wagner among quad match-ups

Heath Davidson and Niels Vink, last year’s Wimbledon quad singles finalists, are drawn to meet each other in the quarter-finals this year, with both players arriving at the All England Club with one title apiece on Britain’s grass courts over the last two weeks.

Word No. 5 Davidson reached the first Grand Slam singles final of his career at Wimbledon in 2023 and the Australian added a second title on grass in Eastbourne, dethroning defending champion and fellow Wimbledon finalist Andy Lapthorne in the title decider.

Eastbourne was a memorable tournament for Lapthorne after he defeated current world No. 1 Sam Schroder in the semi-finals for his first win over the Dutchman since their 2019 British Open. And while he lost out to Davidson in the final, a few days later he turned the tables on the Australian to reach the semi-finals of the British Open before illness saw him withdraw from his last-four meeting with Schroder when trailing by a set.

It's been a challenging start to the grass court season for Schroder. After his semi-final loss Lapthorne in Eastbourne, the top seed was only able to win two games in the British Open final against Vink, a result that brought a welcome change in form and fortune for Vink, who lost his world No. 1 ranking to Schroder earlier this year after a difficult start to 2024.

A finalist in the inaugural Wimbledon quad singles draw in 2019, Lapthorne beat David Wagner in the semi-finals that year and the two players will meet on grass for the first time since then as they go head-to-head for a place in this year’s last four.

Elsewhere, Schroder will bid to get the better of Ahmet Kaplan as the Turkish player makes his Wimbledon debut on the back of recently earning a career-best singles ranking at No. 6 while world No. 3 Guy Sasson will also hope to make a winning debut at The Championships as he faces 2023 semi-finalist Donald Ramphadi.