| Country (sports) |  Turkey | ||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Residence | Mersin, Turkey | ||||||||||||||
| Born | 1 January 2002 Akdeniz, Mersin, Turkey | ||||||||||||||
| Plays | Right-handed, [1] | ||||||||||||||
Medal record
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| Last updated on: 6 June 2024. | |||||||||||||||
Ahmet Kaplan (born 1 January 2002) is a Turkish wheelchair tennis player who competes in the quad class of international level events. [1] [2]
Kaplan started his wheelchair tennis career competing in the quad category in 2022. He won attention for his performance at tournaments organized by the Turkish Physically Disabled Sports Federation (Turkish : Türkiye Bedensel Engelliler Spor Federasyonu, TBESF). [3]
He ranked second in the singles event of the Tenis Akıncılar Qualifying Tournament, and became champion in the doubles event at the International Aspendos Open in Antalya. Moreover, he won the gold medal in the doubles event at the TBESF Open Tournament, took the silver medal in the doubles event of the International Antalya Open Tournament the same year. [3]
With his performance, he rose from the 76th place to 53rd in the world ranking. [3]
He participated at the Johor Open 2023 Tennis Tournament in Malesia. [2]
He took part at the 2023 US Open – Men's Wheelchair Tennis. He lost the first round match in the quad singles event to Dutch Sam Schröder. He and his teammate Uğur Altınel lost the quarter-final match in the quad doubles event against Tomáš Masaryk from Slovakia and Brazilian Ymanitu Silva. [4]
He won the bronze medal in the quad singles event of the 2023 European Para Championships in Rotterdam, Netherlands. [5]
In January 2024, Kaplan took part at the Grand Slam level Australian Open – Men's Wheelchair Tennis. He lost the first round match of the quad singles event against Dutch Niels Vink. [6] He and his Slovak teammate Tomáš Masaryk lost the first round match in the quad doubles event to Donald Ramphadi (South Africa) and Guy Sasson (Israel). [7]
In June 2024, Kaplan won his first ITF title defeating Canadian Robert Shaw in the final match at the Open International de Royan 2024 Tennis Tournament in France. [8]
In May 2024, Kaplan competed in the quad singles event of the Tram Barcelona Open. He defeated world's number 4 Donald Ramphadi from South Africa, but lost to world's number 1 in the final. He finished the tournament as runner-up. [9]
As of end May 2024, Kaplan won four champion titles, and rose to the world rank 8 in quad singles. He helped the Turkey wheelchair tennis quad team become world number 2. [10]
He missed out on a bronze medal at the 2024 Summer Paralympics in Quad singles, after being defeated by Guy Sasson of Israel. [11]
Ahmet Kaplan was born on 1 January 2002, and lives in Akdeniz, Mersin, southern Turkey. [2] [3]
At age eight, he lost his legs due to electric shock accident in the Akdeniz district of Mersin. [3]
Wheelchair tennis is one of the forms of tennis adapted for wheelchair users. The size of the court, net height and rackets are the same, but there are two major differences from pedestrian tennis: athletes use specially designed wheelchairs, and the ball may bounce up to two times, where the second bounce may also occur outside the court.
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Shingo Kunieda is a Japanese former wheelchair tennis player. With four Paralympic gold medals, 28 major singles titles – an all-time record in singles of any tennis discipline – and 50 major titles overall, Kunieda is widely considered the greatest male wheelchair player of all time.
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Yenişehir is a municipality and district of Mersin Province, Turkey. Its area is 139 km2, and its population is 278,961 (2022). It covers the west-central part of the city of Mersin and the adjacent countryside.
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Hatice Duman is a Turkish female para table tennis player of class 3 and Paralympian. She is a native of Balıkesir, Turkey.
Niels Vink is a Dutch wheelchair tennis player.
Sam Schröder and Niels Vink defeated Donald Ramphadi and Ymanitu Silva in the final, 6–1, 6–3 to win the quad doubles wheelchair tennis title at the 2023 Australian Open. With the win, Schröder and Vink completed both a non-calendar-year Grand Slam and the career Super Slam in wheelchair quad doubles.
Andy Lapthorne and David Wagner defeated Donald Ramphadi and Guy Sasson in the final, 6–4, 3–6, [10–2] to win the quad doubles wheelchair tennis title at the 2024 Australian Open.
Sam Schröder and Niels Vink defeated defending champion Andy Lapthorne and his partner Guy Sasson in the final, 7–6(11–9), 6–1 to win the quad doubles wheelchair tennis title at the 2024 French Open.
Guy Sasson is an Israeli Paralympic wheelchair tennis player. He won the 2024 French Open Quad Singles event. His highest world ranking in singles is #3, and in doubles is #4, both on September 2, 2024. He won a bronze medal for Israel at the 2024 Paris Paralympics in Quad singles.
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