The 21st century
Japan · born Tokyo, 1984 · right-handed · Wimbledon singles champion 2022 · four Wimbledon doubles titles
All playersBack to the rankings
50
Major titles in singles and doubles
582
Weeks as world No. 1 in singles
4
Paralympic gold medals, 2004 to 2020
26
Breaks of serve in the 2022 Wimbledon final
Born in Tokyo in 1984, Kunieda began using a wheelchair at nine and first watched wheelchair tennis at 11; the sport, he said, was "fast and powerful". He won Paralympic doubles gold in Athens in 2004, reached world No. 1 in singles in October 2006 and won his first major singles title at Melbourne Park in January 2007. Over 21 years he won 50 major titles, 28 in singles and 22 in doubles, among them 11 Australian Open singles titles, and spent 582 weeks as singles No. 1. He took Paralympic singles gold in 2008, 2012 and at the home Games in Tokyo, and was ITF world champion ten times. He retired as world No. 1 in January 2023, and in March that year received Japan's People's Honour Award.
| Major singles titles | 1: Wimbledon (2022) |
|---|---|
| Major singles finals lost | 1: Wimbledon (2019) |
| Major doubles titles | 4: Wimbledon (2006, 2013, 2014, 2022) |
| Wimbledon doubles partners | 2006 with Satoshi Saida; 2013 and 2014 with Stéphane Houdet; 2022 with Gustavo Fernández |
| Wimbledon doubles finals lost | 2007, 2009 (with Robin Ammerlaan), 2010 |
| Finals to remember | 2019: lost to Gustavo Fernández 6-4, 3-6, 2-6. 2022: beat Alfie Hewett 4-6, 7-5, 7-6 (10-5) from 2-5 down in the third set, then won the doubles with Fernández 6-3, 6-1 against Hewett and Gordon Reid |
| Wimbledon | ||
|---|---|---|
| 2006 | Men's wheelchair doubles | with Satoshi Saida |
| 2013 | Men's wheelchair doubles | with Stéphane Houdet |
| 2014 | Men's wheelchair doubles | with Stéphane Houdet |
| 2022 | Men's wheelchair doubles | with Gustavo Fernández |
| 2022 | Men's wheelchair singles | |
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
"Undoubtedly one of the best athletes this sport has and ever will see."
The person behind the player.
World tour 2006
From 2006 his racquets carried stickers bearing the Japanese words for "I am the strongest". "I was able to chase away that loss of confidence by declaring that 'I am the strongest'," he said. That October he reached world No. 1 in singles for the first time.
Source: International Paralympic CommitteeRio 2016
Chronic pain in his right arm cost him the Paralympic quarter-final in Rio. "I was so discouraged that I honestly thought of retiring," he said. Instead he remodelled his backhand to ease the strain and won the Australian Open in 2018, his first major singles title for two years and four months.
Source: UNIQLO LifeWear MagazineTokyo 2019
At a charity day in Tokyo in 2019 he partnered Roger Federer in an exhibition doubles match. Federer told him: "I can't have more respect for you. Everything that you've done in tennis has been wonderful." Kunieda has said Federer's influence is the reason he came to love tennis as much as he does.
Source: UNIQLO LifeWear MagazineWimbledon 2022 · Final
After losing to Gordon Reid in the first round in 2021, he asked Federer at a sponsor's event how to think on grass when behind. "Roger said that I should attack every point and that if I made a mistake, have no regrets." A year later, with Alfie Hewett serving for the title four times, he kept attacking and won.
Source: International Paralympic CommitteeAthens 2004 to Tokyo 2021
His Paralympic doubles gold in Athens did not make the sports pages in Japan, and for years he campaigned for wheelchair tennis to be treated as sport. At retirement he said attitudes had changed a lot: "After the Tokyo Games, it really felt like it was now being seen as a sport."
Source: Gulf NewsJanuary 2023
After the Wimbledon title his first thought, he said, was "now I'm going to retire". He played the US Open, lost the final to Hewett, and announced his retirement in January 2023 while still world No. 1. "I want to tell all of my fans who supported me along the way that I had the best tennis career."
Source: International Paralympic CommitteeFree membership: player news, the grass court Atlas, the rankings and the grass season calendar.
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