South Africa’s wheelchair tennis star Kgothatso Montjane is a Grand Slam champion for a fourth time. The 39-year-old won a second wheelchair doubles French Open in three years when again teaming up with Japan’s Yui Kamiji to win on the clay of Roland Garros in Paris.
Montjane and Kamiji beat the No2 seeds Xiaohui Li and Ziying Wang, the No2 seeds from China, 4-6, 7-5 [10-7] to take the title.
Also on Friday, Team SA bronze medallist at the 2024 Paris Paralympics, Donald Ramphadi, had to settle for the runner-up spot with his Turkish partner Ahmet Kaplan.
Ramphadi and Lucas Sithole had won bronze at Roland Garros lasi year and the 31-year-old South African has enjoyed another successful time in the French capital this past week.
Ramphadi and Kaplan reached the final of the quad wheelchair doubles after downing No2 seeds Andy Lapthorne and Sam Schroder in the semi-finals. However, they were beaten by the No1 seeds Guy Sasson (Israel) and Niels Vink (Netherlands) in the final. The top seeds won 6-3, 6-4 in 89 minutes.
Montjane was earlier beaten in the semi-finals of the women’s wheelchair singles. The South African went down 6-4 6-2 to the No2 seed, Aniek Van Koot of the Netherlands.
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