South African wheelchair tennis star Kgothatso Montjane reclaimed the French Open doubles title with Japanese partner Yui Kamiji in dramatic fashion at Roland Garros on Friday night.
It was a fourth doubles Grand Slam title for the South African ace, who fell short of reaching the singles final in an earlier semi-final.
Montjane and Kamiji faced the Chinese pairing of Xiaohui Li and Ziying Wang, the No 2 seeds, in the women’s doubles final. They had to dig deep, fighting back from a set down to secure a 4-6 7-5 (10-7) victory.
They reclaimed the trophy they lifted at Roland Garros in 2023. The duo also won the US Open title together in 2023, as well as the Wimbledon crown last year.
Montjane and Kamiji beat top seeds Manami Tanaka of Japan and Zhenzhen Shu of China 6-1 6-4 to reach the decider.
Earlier on Friday, in the men’s quad doubles final, Donald Ramphadi of SA and Turkish partner Ahmet Kaplan lost 6-3 6-4 to Guy Sasson of Israel and Niels Vink of the Netherlands.
Sasson and Vink broke midway through the first set of the men’s quad doubles final and despite a strong fightback, Ramphadi and Kaplan could not close the gap.
They were broken in the first game of the second set as they tried to raise the tempo, but broke straight back.
Ramphadi and Kaplan then held serve to lead in the set, with veteran Ramphadi the aggressor of the duo as they tried to take the game to their higher ranked rivals.
The top seeds later secured another break to lead 3-2 and held serve to extend the score to 4-2. Kaplan held serve to keep the SA-Turkish duo in the contest, while a Ramphadi backhand winner down the line brought their team back to 5-4 and in with a sniff of extending the contest
Sasson and Vink proved just too strong in the end, taking the match in straight sets.
In the women’s singles semifinals, Montjane was handed a 4-6 4-6 defeat by No 2 seed Aniek van Koot. Van Koot, a three-time former champion, progressed to the final this weekend where she will meet Kamiji in the battle for the title.
Kamiji is the Paralympic champion in singles and doubles, as well as the world No 1 in singles.
