Wheelchair tennis star Kgothatso Montjane was in line for more doubles Grand Slam glory at the French Open on Friday, after she missed out on the chance to add a first singles crown to her Grand Slam collection.
Donald Ramphadi lost in the men’s quad wheelchair tennis final.
The 31-year-old Ramphadi and Turkish partner Ahmet Kaplan lost 6-3 6-4 to No 1 seeds Guy Sasson (Israel) and Niels Vink (Netherlands) in the final.
They had beaten the No 2 seeds Andy Lapthorne of Great Britain and Sam Schroder of the Netherlands 6-3 2-6 (10-7) in the semi-final.
Montjane and Japan’s Yui Kamiji beat top seeds Manami Tanaka of Japan and Zhenzhen Shu of China 6-1 6-4 to reach the decider.
They were set face the Chinese duo of Xiaohui Li and Ziying Wang, the No 2 seeds, in the women’s wheelchair doubles final later on Friday.
Montjane upset China’s Ziying Wang 6-2 6-4 in the singles quarter-final. But the South African ace lost 6-4 6-4 to No 2 seed Aniek van Koot of the Netherlands in Friday’s singles semi-final.
The doubles still represented a shot at redemption for the SA star.
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, however, taking the set 6-4 and the match.
The Israeli-Dutch combination had reached the final after beating Francisco Cayulef of Chile and Robert Shaw of Canada 6-0 6-2.
Last year, Ramphadi won a bronze medal at the Paris Paralympics with his partner Lucas Sithole in the quad wheelchair doubles.
