Lumosa – Ready for the future!

Fighting for a medal, giving everything for a cup: sport is about winning, and about conquer.  Because you don’t become number 1 just like that. Lumosa literally puts athletes in the spotlight to get the very best out of themselves. Today and tomorrow. Winners never quit, quitters never win. Led the game start.Diede has been ambassador of Lumosa since 2022. Together they fight for a better and more sustainable world. The common denominator? Only want to achieve the very best. Want to be the very best. Win and win together! A joint mission, in which Lumosa is happy to support Diede.

Road to ParisWith love and pleasure, Lumosa will follow Diede de Groot closely in her ‘Road to Paris’ for three years. In other words: the Paralympic Summer Games of 2024. The sports tournament for every top athlete and therefore a milestone to look forward to. A family business, in which warmth and personality are central, requires long-term cooperation. Loyalty is the keyword for Lumosa.

A supreme De Groot defeats Van Koot

Source: NOS

Diede de Groot has defended her title at the Australian Open with a great display of power. The 25-year-old wheelchair tennis player defeated her doubles partner Aniek van Koot in just 58 minutes of tennis: 6-1, 6-1.

For De Groot, who has dominated wheelchair tennis since 2018, this means her thirteenth grand slam title in singles. Last season she became the first wheelchair tennis player to achieve the golden slam: winning all grand slam tournaments and a gold medal at the Paralympic Games in the same year. In Melbourne, De Groot and Van Koot had already won the doubles title together on Wednesday. Despite all the prizes won by Van Koot and De Groot, Esther Vergeer still leads the list of honour: in singles alone she has won 30 grand slam tournaments. Next tot hat she has also won 24 Grand Slam titles in doubles. In addition tot he fact that this was in a time when fewer events were organised. Schröder beats crowd favorite Alcott In the quad category (the category for tennis players with disabilities in both arms and legs), Sam Schröder took his second grand slam title. The winner of the US Open in 2020 was to strong for Australian crowd favorite Dylan Alcott: 7-5, 6-0.

The final was a repeat of the Tokyo Paralympic final. In which Schröder, the number two in the world ranking, had to acknowledge defeat against Alcott and settle for the silver medal.

KNLTB Tennis Award

Bron: KNLTB

During the Dutch national tennis championships the annual KNLTB Tennis Awards for wheelchair tennis players were presented at the National Tennis Center in Amstelveen. Diede de Groot received the award for best wheelchairtennis player, from topsport manager Dennis Sporrel, for her outstanding performance this year. Maarten ten Hoftte received the Encouragement Price.

Who else but Diede de Groot deserves the prize for best wheelchair tennis player 2021. The global superstar made history by realizing the Golden Slam. The world number one won all Grand Slam tournaments and added a gold medal at the Paralympic Games. Yesterday Diede was also chosen as Paralympic Best Female Athlete of the Year.

 

The presentation of the KNLTB Tennis Awards took place at the NTC in Amstelveen during the TennisDirect Dutch national tennis championships. Most of the festivities were canceled due to the corona measures. Topsport manager Dennis Sporrel presented the award to Diede in a adjusted ceremony. The KNLTB Tennis Awards for Best male Tennis Player , Best female Tennis Player and Best Doubles Player of 2021 were awarded last week to respectively Botic van de Zandschulp, Arantxa Rus and Matwé Middelkoop. The Incentive Prize will be awarded at a later date.

 

Incentive prize
Maarten ter Hofte was awarded the Wheelchair Tennis Incentive Prize. Maarten has gone through a very good and beautiful development in the past year. In addition to a nice 3rd place (youth) at WTC in Sardinia, he has proven several times to be the best at the various national and international youth tournaments, with the reward of a nice 3rd place in the ITF youth ranking. He is now ranking 156 in the ITF single ranking (seniors) and in 229 in the doubles.

Best Female Athlete

Best Female Athlete The Paralympic Sports Awards were presented today by the International Paralympic Committee. It’s impressive to see all the images of the Paralympic Games in Tokyo again and it is amazing to see the impressive list of nominated athletes. I would like to thank the IPC for everything they do to make parasports possible. And it is really special to receive the title ‘Best Female Athlete’! Click HERE for the entire award ceremony.

Golden Grand Slam: five titles in 2021

Source: AD

Diede de Groot has made history in New York. The Dutch wheelchair tennis player accomplished a so called Golden Grand Slam by being the best at the Australian Open, Roland Garros, Wimbledon, the Paralympic Games and now also the US Open in the same year.

She defeated her Japanese rival Yui Kamiji in the final 6-3, 6-2. Yesterday, De Groot also won the women’s doubles title at the US Open together with Aniek van Koot. For the fourth year in a row De Groot is the strongest at the US Open. More than a week ago, De Groot, the number 1 in the world, also took the Paralympic title in Tokyo at the expense of her Asian rival. “I can’t wait to go home and celebrate with family and friends, who took the time to watch all the matches in the middle of the night. What am I most looking forward to? Doing nothing at all. It has been such a tough trip, also because of the pressure i experienced, being the number one and on the verge of accomplishing a golden slam. But I did not let the pressure get to me,” said De Groot. ,,Immediately after the last point there was relief, and a bit later came the joy. I wanted this so badly. I’m looking forward to enjoying the rest of the season a little more and playing with a little less pressure.” De Groot is the first tennisplayer to win a Golden Grand Slam since Steffi Graf in 1988. The German won Olympic gold in Seoul and won all grand slam tournaments that year, like De Groot.

For De Groot, the win in New York is her twelfth grand singles slam title in total. She also took the doubles title in New York yesterday with Aniek van Koot. 

Novak Djokovic (34) can surpass Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer tonight by winning his 21st Grand Slam. After Don Budge (in 1938) and Rod Laver (in 1962 and 1969), the Serb could become the third male tennis player to win all four Grand Slams in a calendar year. In the women’s league, Maureen Connolly (in 1953), Margaret Court (in 1980) and Steffi Graff (in 1988) managed to capture all four Grand Slams in a calendar year. The latter also won gold at the Olympic Games that year. In doubles, there were fourteen players who won a Golden Slam.

Also gold in doubles

Source: nu.nl At the Paralympics in Tokyo wheelchair tennis players Diede de Groot and Aniek van Koot won a gold medal on Saturday in the doubles final. In the men’s singles there was silver for Sam Schröder and Tom Egberink.

De Groot previously won a gold medal in singles at the Paralympic Games. In the doubles final, together with Van Koot, she was much too strong for the British duo Lucy Shuker and Jordanne Whiley: 6-0 and 6-1.

The Tokyo match lasted just over an hour. Whiley kept Van Koot away from the bronze in the singles on Friday.

The Netherlands is dominant in women’s doubles at the Paralympic Games, as in singles. Since womens doubles tennis became a part of the Paralympic games in 1992, the Dutch won every edition.

At the games in Rio de Janeiro Games five years ago Jiske Griffioen and Van Koot were to strong for De Groot and Marjolein Buis in a completely Dutch final.

De Groot wins Paralympic title

Source: nu.nl Diede de Groot keeps an eye on a historic Golden Slam. The 24-year-old wheelchair tennis player won the singles gold medal at the Paralympic Games in Tokyo on Friday, her first title at the Paralympics. Late on the Japanese evening, in the singles final, the first-seeded De Groot dealt with  the second-ranked home player Yui Kamij i: 6-3 and 7-6 (1).

At the Ariake Tennis Park The Japanese player made it very difficult for the top favourite. De Groot took a 3-1 and 5-3 lead in the second set, but Kamiji didn’t give up. The second seeded eliminated six match points, but the Dutch still finished it in the tiebreak.

Five years ago, De Groot finished fourth in singles at the Paralympics in Rio de Janeiro. Since then she has been almost unbeatable. She has won eleven Grand Slam singles titles and is the number one ranked player in the world.

The female player from Utrecht was already the best at the Australian Open, Roland Garros and Wimbledon earlier this year. If she also wins the US Open next week in New York, she will achieve the first Golden Slam in wheelchair tennis: winning all Grand Slam tournaments in singles  and winning gold at the Games in one year.

With her Paralympic title, De Groot follows in the footsteps of Monique van den Bosch (1992), Maaike Smit (1996), Esther Vergeer (2000, 2004, 2008 and 2012) and Jiske Griffioen (2016). Until now, the gold in the women’s singles has always been won by a Dutch paralympic athlete.

Citi Netherlands welcomes Diede de Groot in Team Citi

As the countdown to Tokyo continues Dutch wheelchair tennis player Diede de Groot will be joining a roster of global Para athletes advocating for inclusivity both within and outside of sport.  

De Groot, who will be Team Citi’s first Wheelchair Tennis player, recently claimed yet another title at the 2021 Wimbledon singles championship, as well as her second singles Roland-Garros title in June. Since the beginning of her career in 2009, de Groot has won over 10 Grand Slam tournaments. In 2019, De Groot became the first Wheelchair Tennis athlete to hold all four major singles titles (US, French and Australia Opens and Wimbledon) at the same time. She also competed in the 2016 Rio Paralympics in both singles and doubles competitions, receiving a silver medal in women’s doubles.  

“Citi has been a great advocate for inclusivity within society and to change perceptions of people with disabilities. It is something I experience daily as do millions of other people living with disabilities. Through my sport, I want to inspire all people to start to move and believe in their dreams. I really like that a company like Citi supports me and wants to inspire millions of people around the world. From today onwards, I am proud that we will fight together to accomplish our mission to help raise awareness” says Diede.

“Citi and the Citi Netherlands team are proud to partner with a talented athlete like Diede to help generate excitement for the Paralympic Movement and the many remarkable athletes like Diede”, says Auke Leenstra, Citi Country Officer the Netherlands. “We are committed to creating a more diverse and inclusive society and, together with Diede, changing the conversation around disability as we help create new Para sport fans at Citi and beyond.”

Citi first began its partnership with the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) in 2018. As a member of the IPC, de Groot will support Citi’s global efforts to foster a more diverse, inclusive society and help change perceptions of people with disabilities. To date, Team Citi already counts 55 para athletes from around the world. In addition to its partnership with the IPC, Citi currently partners with 23 National Paralympic Committees (NPCs) including Australia, Bulgaria, Chinese Taipei, Colombia, Costa Rica, Czech Republic, Great Britain, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Ireland, Kazakhstan, , Luxembourg, Malaysia, Mexico, Nigeria, Philippines, Poland, Singapore, Slovakia, South Africa, Thailand, and the UAE.

Through this mission-driven partnership, Citi aims to raise awareness for the Paralympic Movement, support Para athletes, and advocate for societal change in perceptions of disabilities. Along with its IPC partnership, Citi has sponsored many Para sport events including the 2018 Asian Para Games, the 2018 World Wheelchair Rugby Championships, the 2019 World Para Swimming Championships and the 2019 World Para Athletics Championships. In late June, Citi launched its #StareAtGreatness campaign across various social platforms. Featuring athletes from Team Citi, the campaign seeks to amplify the voices of people sharing their own experiences living with a disability and spark a conversation around perceptions of disability.

About Citi Citi, the leading global bank, has approximately 200 million customer accounts and does business in more than 160 countries and jurisdictions. Citi provides consumers, corporations, governments and institutions with a broad range of financial products and services, including consumer banking and credit, corporate and investment banking, securities brokerage, transaction services, and wealth management.  

Citi Netherlands Citi operations in the Netherlands began in 1964 and is one of the largest foreign banks in the Netherlands and the only US headquartered bank with such a long standing presence in the country. Citi Netherlands employees 80 professionals who exclusively serve large multinational corporations, market leading local companies, financial institutions, large investor funds, pension funds, public sector organizations and since 2021 mid-sized companies through the Commercial Bank.

Diede de Groot has achieves her third GS title this year

This Sunday wheelchair tennis player Diede de Groot won Wimbledon for the third time in her career. The Dutch tennis player was to strong for the South African Kgothatso Montjane and won the final in two straight sets. The Wimbledon title is her third Grand Slam title this year, earlier De Groot also won the Australian Open and Roland Garros.
De Groot and Montjane had never met in a Grand Slam Final before. After the third game, Diede got into a rhythm and dominated the game completely, with the endresult of 6-2 and 6-2. De Groot completed the tournament without losing a set.
In her speech after the final, Diede mentioned that she is pleasantly surprised with the developments in wheelchair tennis. For the firts time in history the Wimbledon wheelchair final was played on tenniscourt 1. She also looked back on the year in the pandemic ‘That quiet period has made me extra hungry for beautiful tennis results. It was great Wimbledon could be organized again’ says a proud Diede.
In the doubles tournament Diede and partner Aniek van Koot had to acknowledge superiority in the semifinales to Montjane / Shuker with 3-6, 6-3 and 5-7.
De Groot has eleven Grand Slam titels on her resume. In 2017 and 2018 she was also the singles winner at Wimbledon.

Roland Garros 2021 win

On Sunday wheelchair tennis player Diede de Groot won Roland Garros for the second time in her tennis career. In the final the 24-years old De Groot was too strong for her Japanese opponent Yui Kamiji (6-4 and 6-3).

In the first round De Groot won her match against the Colombian Angelica Bernal without losing a game. In the semi-finals de Groot played against her doubles partner and fellow countrymen Aniek van Koot. In a strong match she beat van Koot with 6-1 and 6-1.

In her career De Groot has already won nine Grand Slam single titels. She has previously won Roland Garros in 2019, Australian Open in 2018, 2019 and 2021, Wimbledon in 2017 and 2018 and the US Open in 2018 and 2019.

In wheelchair tennis the best seven players in the world are invited to participate in a Grand Slam, added with a wildcard invitation. De Groot is the number one in the world ranking.

On Monday De Groot will play the doubles final together with van Koot.