A historic moment for wheelchair tennis was graced by ATP Tour royalty on Sunday in Jeddah.
Rafael Nadal headed to King Abdullah Sports City’s Onyx Arena to meet the four 21-and-under competitors in an exhibition tournament being hosted at the Next Gen ATP Finals. The event, which featured semi-finals on Saturday and a final on Sunday, was the first wheelchair tennis event to be held in Saudi Arabia.
The four-player field comprised three 21-year-olds — Dutchmen Robin Grounewoud and Maarten Ter Hofte, and Japan’s Shogo Takano — and 19-year-old Briton Ben Bartram, who all posed for a photo with the former No. 1 in the PIF ATP Rankings.
“I’m a big Rafa fan,” Grounewoud told ATPTour.com. “Just his mentality in his sport and everything, I really admire him and the way he just worked hard. I think I like to work hard also. So I think I feel pretty familiar with that on court. It was crazy to see him every time on court, fighting at 100 per cent.”
Ter Hofte added: “When I was younger, I was more a Roger guy, but when Roger retired and especially after Nadal’s 2022 Australian Open win against Medvedev, I was all over the place. The comeback, the mindset, everything. It’s hard work that I like. It’s the perspective.”
Following Nadal’s visit, Ter Hofte defeated his good friend Grounewoud in the exhibition final in Jeddah. The two players, who last week won the doubles title together at the Dutch national championships, spoke positively about their experience in the Saudi Arabian city and the presence of wheelchair tennis at the Next Gen ATP Finals.
“It’s an amazing facility, of course, and we’re not used to these things,” said Grounewoud. “Not yet, but hopefully in the future. It’s amazing to have this big facility and to sell our product of wheelchair tennis here. It’s a pleasure to be here.
“It’s the most important thing for our sport, I think to grow. These kinds of events are so much bigger than our events currently, so it’s important that we can show our sport at these events.”
Ter Hofte, who represented his country at the Paris 2024 Paralympics, also stressed the need to showcase wheelchair tennis in front of those who may not have seen it before.
“[Events like this] are really important,” he said. “One of the most important things, because that’s how we get wheelchair tennis on a higher level, performance wise but also so people who only know tennis and not wheelchair tennis, they get interested. So I think that’s really important exposure.”
