'AIG SUNDAY' packed with 10,000 tennis fans

The pre-tournament event at the AIG Sunday saw an attendance of about 10,000 tennis fans.

The event saw the practice sessions of Kei Nishikori (錦織 圭) vs Go Soeda and Kimiko Date vs Ayumi Morita as well as exhibition doubles match between Takao Suzuki/Satoshi Iwabuchi vs David Ferrer/Tommy Robredo.

The exhibition match between world No. 1 wheelchair tennis player (also Paralympic gold medallist) Shingo Kunieda and Satoshi Saida was also on schedule but it was canceled at the last minute due to Kunieda's elbow injury.

Here are some photos from the event.

Kei Nishikori and Go Soeda

Kimiko Date is still very much popular with the tennis fans

(From left to right) David Ferrer, Tommy Robredo, Satoshi Iwabuchi and Takao Suzuki

Kei Nisihikori with Paralympic gold medallist, Shingo Kunieda

(Via jta.blog.so-net.ne.jp)

Wheelchair tennis ends with Japan, Netherlands and France winners

Top seed Shingo Kunieda of Japan snatched the Men's Singles gold medal from Athens champion Robin Ammerlaan of the Netherlands to end the Wheelchair Tennis event on Monday. In the one-sided match, Kunieda challenged defending champion and second seed Ammerlaan, winning 6-3, 6-0 in less than an hour.

Kunieda went into the Games as the first Men's player to win all four majors in the same season in 2007. Kunieda led Ammerlaan slightly in head-to-head by 12 to 11 going in to the match and today he came out on top.

"I just thought, 'Yes. I did it,'" said Kunieda after the victory. "I will drink beer [to celebrate]. I cannot usually drink alcohol, but tonight I will."

In the Women's Doubles final, Dutch second seeds Korie Homan and Sharon Walraven stole the gold medal from their compatriots Esther Vergeer and Jiske Griffioen.

Vergeer and Griffioen won the first set 6-2, but Homan and Walraven fought back in the second, taking it 7-6 (4) and winning the final set 6-4 in two-and-a-quarter hours. Vergeer and Griffioen have been beaten only once in 39 tournaments, since first pairing up in 2004.

"It's amazing," said Homan. "I had a match point yesterday and it didn't work out. Today, after the first match point, I was thinking like, 'No, not again, not again.' At the second point, I was thinking like, 'We have to just go for it,' and it worked."

Second seeds Stephane Houdet and Michael Jeremiasz of France won the gold medal for the Men's Doubles over fourth seeds Stefan Olsson and Peter Wikstrom of Sweden.

This match was held on Monday after getting rained out. Houdet and Jeremiasz had taken the first set from Olsson and Wikstrom when the match was suspended. However, the Swedes led the second set 2-1 and 30-0 by the time the match was rained out.

The French pair then pushed ahead winning 6-1, 7-6 (5), after two hours on Monday. Jeremiasz won the silver in Athens with a different partner. He was so elated to win the gold today that he ripped off his shirt, baring his chest at the end of the match.

"We decided, since the beginning, that if we are going to play, we are going to win," said Houdet. "Sometimes, we were a little bit too far back, and then they could be aggressive and win a couple of points. We just had to wheel back to the front, to go to the net, to be aggressive and I think in this game, we put the pressure on them."

(Via ITF Tennis Paralympic, Images via Yahoo! Sport)

Dutch players are strong contenders at the Beijing Paralympic tennis event

I can't believe I didn't even write a single post about the Paralympic tennis event Beijing. Shame on me! The U.S. Open is not a good excuse not to write.


Did your local TV network show the Opening Ceremony of the Beijing 2008 Paralympic Games last Saturday?

Well done to China for such a tremendous effort! Judging from the photos, it matches the quality of the Beijing Olympics last month. Even Hong Kong singer Andy Lau performed at this event!

Now emphasizing on the wheelchair tennis, it was first introduced at the 1988 Seoul Paralympic Games as a demonstration sport and became a full-medal sport at the 1992 Paralympic Games in Barcelona.

Shingo Kunieda of Japan

This year four-time gold medallist Esther Vergeer (Netherland) and Shingo Kunieda (Japan) head the entries for the wheelchair tennis event at the 2008 Beijing Paralympics on 8-15 September.

Esther Vergeer, a hot favourite, at the Great Wall of China.

Esther Vergeer will bid for her third successive gold medal in both singles and doubles in Beijing. The 26-year-old has remained unbeaten in the women's singles since 2003.

Her strongest challenges will come from Frenchwoman Florence Gravellier, Marie-Annick Sevenans of Belgium and Dong Fuli from China.

Robin Ammerlaan is the defending champion.

There is also a strong Dutch entry in the men's singles, with Robin Ammerlaan, defending his title, alongside Maikel Scheffers and Ronald Vink.

There will be six wheelchair tennis events. They include men's singles and doubles, women's singles and doubles, and quad singles and doubles.

(Images via ITF Tennis website, Beijing Paralympic official website)