The 21st century
Japan · born Yokkaichi, Mie, 1972 · right-handed · Wimbledon wheelchair doubles champion 2006
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6
Paralympic Games in a row, 1996 to 2016
3
Major doubles titles, 2006 to 2008
1
Doubles world ranking, first reached November 2002
7-5, 6-2
Wimbledon doubles final, 2006
Born in Yokkaichi, Mie, in 1972, Saida took up wheelchair tennis at 14 and was in the Japanese national squad by the time he reached university. He made his Paralympic debut in Atlanta in 1996, and in 1999 moved to Chiba to train full time under a contract with the wheelchair maker OX Engineering. He became doubles world No. 1 in November 2002, reached No. 3 in singles in 2003, and that year became the first Japanese player to receive the ITF's world player award. With Shingo Kunieda he won Paralympic doubles gold in Athens in 2004 and bronze in Beijing in 2008 and Rio in 2016. His three major doubles titles came at Wimbledon in 2006, the US Open in 2007 and the Australian Open in 2008.
| Major doubles titles | 1: Wimbledon (2006) |
|---|---|
| Wimbledon doubles | 2006 with Shingo Kunieda, seeded first: beat Miroslav Brychta and Tadeusz Kruszelnicki 1-6, 6-2, 6-2 in the semi-final, then the defending champions Michaël Jeremiasz and Jayant Mistry 7-5, 6-2 in the final |
| The event | Wheelchair doubles was added to Wimbledon in 2005; the 2006 event was a four-pair draw with a third-place play-off |
| Wimbledon | ||
|---|---|---|
| 2006 | Men's wheelchair doubles | with Shingo Kunieda |
Leading grass titles only: the grass majors, tour-level grass events since 1968 and the leading grass championships before 1968. †single source; ‡ sources disagree. Roll of champions
"I always finish what I start."
The person behind the player.
Mie 1986
He loved baseball as a boy. At 12 he began playing wheelchair basketball, and at 14 most of his teammates went on a wheelchair tennis course. He followed them, he said, to be with his friends, and stayed for the game itself: "the rallies are what hooked me." By university he was in the national squad.
Source: Nippon.comAtlanta 1996
His first Paralympics ended in the second round of both singles and doubles. In singles he lost to the Australian David Hall, the dominant player of the time. "I was completely out of my league," he said later. He also regretted being slow to commit: "I would've done better at Sydney in 2000 if I hadn't dallied so long."
Source: Nippon.comChiba 1999
Two years out of university he was a civil servant with little time to practise, and reluctant to give up a regular income. Munehiro Yoshida of the Yoshida Memorial Tennis Training Center urged him to turn professional, and Shigeyuki Ishii, founder of OX Engineering, gave him a contract. He moved from Mie to Chiba and made the centre his training base.
Source: Nippon.comOn tour
Early trips abroad meant booking his own flights and hotels with little English, and wheeling through foreign cities with rackets, clothes, food and a rice cooker. He often went out after one match. "Each time I hit a low point, I would have to dig deeper and deeper to pump myself up again," he said.
Source: Nippon.comAthens 2004
Shingo Kunieda's first Paralympics brought gold in the doubles with Saida, his first Paralympic medal after three Games. Saida did not linger over it. After a medal, he said, "by the next day, I was fully focused on the next competition." Two years later the pair won Wimbledon.
Source: International Paralympic CommitteeFree membership: player news, the grass court Atlas, the rankings and the grass season calendar.
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