Ahmet Kaplan (born 1 January 2002) is a Turkish

wheelchair tennis Wheelchair tennis is one of the forms of tennis Adaptive sport, 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 designe ...

player who competes in the

quad QUaD, an acronym for QUEST at DASI, was a ground-based cosmic microwave background (CMB) polarization experiment at the South Pole. QUEST (Q and U Extragalactic Sub-mm Telescope) was the original name attributed to the bolometer detector instrume ...

class of international level events.

Career

2022

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 (, TBESF). 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 Antalya is the fifth-most populous city in Turkey and the capital of Antalya Province. Recognized as the "capital of tourism" in Turkey and a pivotal part of the Turkish Riviera, Antalya sits on Anatolia's southwest coast, flanked by the Tau ...

. 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. With his performance, he rose from the 76th place to 53rd in the world ranking.

2023

He participated at the Johor Open 2023 Tennis Tournament in Malesia. 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 Sam Schröder (born 25 September 1999) is a Dutch wheelchair tennis player. Personal life Schröder has split hand/split foot syndrome (SHFM), a rare genetic disorder which has caused his hands and feet to develop abnormally. Wheelchair tenni ...

. 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. He won the bronze medal in the quad singles event of the

2023 European Para Championships The 2023 European Para Championships were the first edition of the European Para Championships held between 8 and 20 August 2023 in Rotterdam, Netherlands. Sports The following competitions took place: Venues Events will be held at the follow ...

Rotterdam Rotterdam ( , ; ; ) is the second-largest List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city in the Netherlands after the national capital of Amsterdam. It is in the Provinces of the Netherlands, province of South Holland, part of the North S ...

, Netherlands.

2024

In January 2024, Kaplan took part at the

Grand Slam Grand Slam or Grand slam may refer to: Games and sports * Grand slam, winning category terminology originating in contract bridge and other whist card games Athletics * Grand Slam Track, professional track and field league Auto racing * ...

level Australian Open – Men's Wheelchair Tennis. He lost the first round match of the quad singles event against Dutch

Niels Vink Niels Vink (born 6 December 2002) is a Dutch wheelchair tennis player. Vink has won five Grand Slam singles titles, two at the French Open, two at Wimbledon and one at the US Open. He has also won nine Grand Slam doubles titles, all have been w ...

. 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). 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. 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. 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. He missed out on a bronze medal at the

2024 Summer Paralympics The 2024 Summer Paralympics (), also known as the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games (), and branded as Paris 2024, were the 17th Summer Paralympic Games, an international Multi-sport event, multi-sport parasports event governed by the International P ...

in Quad singles, after being defeated by

Guy Sasson Guy Sasson (; born April 28, 1980) is an Israeli wheelchair tennis player. He has won two singles majors at the 2024 and 2025 French Opens. His highest world ranking in singles is No. 3, and in doubles is No. 4, both on September 2, 2024. He won ...

of Israel."Tennis player Guy Sasson claims bronze, Israel’s ninth medal at Paralympics,"
''The Times of Israel''.

Personal life

Ahmet Kaplan was born on 1 January 2002, and lives in

Akdeniz, Mersin Akdeniz is a municipality and Districts of Turkey, district of Mersin Province, Turkey. Its area is 265 km2, and its population is 255,946 (2022). It covers the central and eastern part of the city of Mersin and the adjacent countryside. H ...

, southern Turkey. At age eight, he lost his legs due to electric shock accident in the Akdeniz district of Mersin.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kaplan, Ahmet 2002 births Living people People from Akdeniz, Mersin Sportspeople from Mersin Province Sportspeople from Mersin Turkish wheelchair tennis players Turkish male tennis players 21st-century Turkish sportsmen