The US Tennis Association announced the field for the 2019 US Open wheelchair competition on Thursday as Argentina’s Gustavo Fernandez and Australia’s Dylan Alcott look to calendar Grand Slam in New York next month.
The US Open wheelchair competition, in its 12th year, will be held between September 5-8 and will include six events, namely men’s singles, men’s doubles, women’s singles, women’s doubles, quad singles and quad doubles.
Wheelchair tennis follows the same rules as able-bodied tennis, except that the ball can bounce twice.
In the men’s singles, Fernandez looks to continue his dominance in the men’s field as he will be vying for his fourth Grand Slam title of the year. In his way will be 23-time Grand Slam singles champion Shingo Kunieda of Japan, who will be looking to win his seventh US Open wheelchair competition singles title.
In the quad singles, Alcott will not only complete for the calendar Grand Slam but also for his third US Open trophy. His main rival will once again be the three-time US Open quad singles champion and six-time finalist David Wagner of the United States.
In the women’s field, top-seeded Diede de Groot of the Netherlands will look to avenge her loss at Wimbledon to No. 2 seed and fellow countrywoman Aniek van Koot, which cost her a chance for a calendar Grand Slam. Yui Kamiji of Japan, who lost to de Groot in last year’s US Open final, will also be a star to watch.
The wheelchair competition was first added to the US Open back in 2005, with only men’s and women’s singles champions being crowned. One of the all-time great wheelchair athletes, the Netherlands’ Esther Vergeer, who won 470 consecutive matches before retiring, won the inaugural women’s event, with Robin Ammerlaan, also from the Netherlands, winning the first men’s title.
Source:Xinhua
