Wheelchair tennis: Day seven preview

The Netherlands will win their seventh successive women’s singles gold medal on Thursday (15 September) as two Dutch players battle it out for the Paralympic title.

Compatriots Jiske Griffioen and Aniek van Koot will face each other in the final while the men’s doubles medals will be decided with Great Britain looking to make history.

Remarkably, ever since its inclusion in the Paralympics, the women’s singles wheelchair tennis gold medal has been won by a Dutch woman.

Esther Vergeer dominated the division for four Paralympics before retiring after London 2012, but that Dutch dominance has continued.

Griffioen and van Koot go head-to-head in a medal-packed day seven when they get underway on Centre Court around mid-afternoon.

In the men’s doubles, Great Britain’s pairing of Gordon Reid and Alfie Hewett could make GB wheelchair tennis history if they win gold and become the first men’s doubles pairing to do so.

The duo were victorious at Wimbledon this year as they won the All England championship, but will face stiff opposition for Paralympic glory in the form of number one seeds Stephane Houdet and Nicolas Peifer.

Japan will battle it out for bronze as their pairings go head-to-head in the first match on Centre Court.

Fourth seeds Takuya Miki and Takashi Sanada play sixth seeds and compatriots Shingo Kunieda and Satoshi Saida, as Kunieda looks to medal to make sure he does not leave a Paralympics empty-handed for the first time.