Aniek van Koot (born 15 August 1990) is a Dutch

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 is a former world No. 1 in both singles and doubles. Van Koot has won 26 major titles, having won the 2013 Australian Open, 2013 US Open and

2019 Wimbledon Championships The 2019 Wimbledon Championships was a Grand Slam (tennis), Grand Slam tennis tournament that took place at the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club in Wimbledon, London, United Kingdom. The main tournament began on Monday 1 July 2019 and fi ...

in wheelchair singles combined with 23 major titles in doubles, variously partnering Florence Gravellier, Daniela di Toro,

Jiske Griffioen Jiske Griffioen (born 17 April 1985) is a Dutch professional wheelchair tennis player. Griffioen is a 20-time Grand Slam (tennis)#Tournaments, major champion (four singles and 16 doubles), Paralympic gold medalist, seven-time Masters champion, a ...

and

Diede de Groot Diede de Groot (; born 19 December 1996) is a Dutch professional wheelchair tennis player who was world No. 1 in both singles and doubles. De Groot is a 42-time Grand Slam (tennis)#Tournaments, major champion, having won a record 23 titles in ...

. Van Koot has completed the calendar year Grand Slam in doubles on two occasions, in 2013 with Griffioen, and in 2019 alongside de Groot. She won the Wheelchair Tennis Masters in 2014 in singles, and in 2012, 2015 and 2018 in doubles. Van Koot has also won five

Paralympic The Paralympic Games or Paralympics is a periodic series of international multisport events involving athletes with a range of disabilities. There are Winter and Summer Paralympic Games, which since the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul, South Kore ...

medals, gold in doubles at both Rio 2016 and

Tokyo 2020 The officially the and officially branded as were an international multi-sport event that was held from 23 July to 8 August 2021 in Tokyo, Japan, with some of the preliminary sporting events beginning on 21 July 2021. Tokyo ...

, silver in singles at

London 2012 The 2012 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the XXX Olympiad and also known as London 2012, were an international multi-sport event held from 27 July to 12 August 2012 in London, England, United Kingdom. The first event, the ...

and Rio 2016, and silver in doubles at

Personal life

Aniek van Koot was born with her right leg shorter than her left. After a series of unsuccessful corrective operations van Koot had her right leg amputated. She started to play wheelchair tennis at the age of 10.

Career

In singles play van Koot was successful in Montreal. During the 2006 season van Koot won doubles titles in Livorno with Korie Homan, Jesolo with Sevenans. She finished third with Walraven at the 2006 Masters. Van Koot won junior titles in Sydney and Nottingham during the 2007 season. She was also part of the Netherlands team that reached the Junior World Team cup final. In senior competition van Koot won a title in Gross Siegharts. Van Koot also made the finals of Hilton Head, Atlanta and Sardina. In doubles competitions she won in Jambes with Esther Vergeer. Won Austrian Open with Makke Smit. Sardinia. Van Koot reached the final of the French Open with Yaosa. With Yaosa finished last at the Masters. Finalist with Florence Gravellier at Pensacola and Nottingham. During the 2008 season van Koot won one title in Prague. Van Koot reached the final of the singles competitions in Nottingham, Hilton Head, Jambes and Gross Siegharts. At the end of year Masters van Koot failed to advance from her group. In doubles competitions van Koot won titles in Christchurch and Sardinia with

. With Smit, van Koot added the Austrian Open doubles title before claiming the mixed doubles crown with Stefan Olsson.

2009–2012

During the 2009 season van Koot was a finalist in Boca Raton and Roland Garros. Van Koot won titles in Pensacola, Olot, Jambes and Prague. Van Koot finished 6th in the Masters. In doubles competitions van Koot won in Olot and Jambes. Playing with

at the Masters the pair reached the final. The 2011 season saw van Koot win singles titles in Adelaide, Paris, Geneva, Jambes and Salzburg. reach the final in Boca Raton, Seoul and of the Masters. At the Grand Slams van Koot finished as the runner up in New York. Partnering Griffioen in the doubles events the pair won titles in Sydney, Pensacola, Boca Raton, Paris, Nottingham and St. Louis. The pair lost in the final of all four Grand Slams to Vergeer and Walraven, including from 5–2 up in the final set at

Wimbledon Wimbledon most often refers to: * Wimbledon, London, a district of southwest London * Wimbledon Championships, the oldest tennis tournament in the world and one of the four Grand Slam championships Wimbledon may also refer to: Places London * W ...

and a 6–1 second set tiebreak lead at the US Open. Additionally the pair also lost in the final of the Japan Open and the Masters. Van Koot played doubles with other players as well, having success with Annick Sevenans in Geneva, Jambes and Salzburg. While with Marjolein Buis she won in Seoul. With

Jordanne Whiley Jordanne Joyce Whiley MBE (born 11 June 1992) is a British retired wheelchair tennis player. Aged 14, she became Britain's youngest ever national women's singles champion in wheelchair tennis. She has osteogenesis imperfecta as does her father ...

van Koot made the final of Sardinia. During the 2012 season van Koot picked up singles titles in Cajan, Seoul and Paris. She was also the runner up in Sydney, Pensacola, Nottingham and the season ending Masters. Van Koot additionally picked up the silver medal at the Paralympic Games and was a finalist at Roland Garros and Melbourne. In doubles play van Koot played with Griffioen; the pair won titles in Cajan, Pensacola, Paris and Nottingham. They were also finalist in Boca Raton and Fukuoka. The pair also won their first Grand Slam as a team at Wimbledon and claimed the silver medal at the Paralympics. To finish the year the pair claimed their first Masters doubles title as a team. At the start of the year van Koot teamed up with Buis winning the title in Sydney and reaching the final of the first slam event of the year. Van Koot also represented her country in the World Team Cup, where she guided her country to win the competition for the 25 time.

2013–present

During the 2013 season van Koot won titles in Baton Rouge, Olot, and Jambes. Van Koot has made finals in Sydney, Melbourne, Nottingham and St Louis. At the

Australian Open The Australian Open (stylized ΛO) is a tennis tournament organised by Tennis Australia annually at Melbourne Park in Melbourne, Victoria (state), Victoria, Australia. It is chronologically the first of the four Grand Slam (tennis), Grand Sl ...

van Koot claimed her first Grand Slam singles title. Van Koot competed in the other Grand Slam events losing in the semi-final of Roland Garros but winning the US Open. As a result of her success at the Australian Open and Esther Vergeer not playing, van Koot ascended to the world number one spot in the rankings. Van Koot lost the world number one spot to Sabine Ellerbrock in June after the French Open, but regained it following her success at the US Open. She held on to the position for the rest of the year and was named the 2013 ITF Wheelchair World Champion. With

, van Koot won the doubles title in Sydney and Nottingham. The pair won their first

Australian Australian(s) may refer to: Australia * Australia, a country * Australians, citizens of the Commonwealth of Australia ** European Australians ** Anglo-Celtic Australians, Australians descended principally from British colonists ** Aboriginal Aus ...

, French and US Open titles and retained the

crown to complete the Grand Slam. Their only defeat came in the final of St Louis, their first since the Paralympic final. Van Koot also won doubles titles with Buis in Baton Rouge, Helout partnered van Koot to the title in Olot and in Jambes she won with Sharon Walraven. When partnering Lucy Shuker, van Koot finished as the runner up in Paris. Van Koot's season was curtailed by injury ruling her out of the season ending Masters. After missing the opening events of the 2014 season, van Koot dropped to world number two in the singles rankings, behind Ellerbrock after the Australian Open. Van Koot made her first appearance of the season in Bolton where she won the title. Throughout the rest of the season van Koot added titles in Pensacola and Johannesburg to her title in Bolton. As well she reached the singles final in Baton Rouge. She competed at the

2016 Summer Paralympics The 2016 Summer Paralympics (), the 15th Summer Paralympic Games, were a major international multi-sport event for disabled sports, athletes with disabilities governed by the International Paralympic Committee, held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, f ...

, winning a silver medal in Women's Singles, and a gold medal in Women's Doubles.

Career statistics

Grand Slam performance timelines

Wheelchair singles

Wheelchair doubles

Grand Slam tournament finals

Wheelchair singles: 16 (3 titles, 13 runner-ups)

Wheelchair doubles: 45 (24 titles, 21 runner-ups)

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:van Koot, Aniek 1990 births Living people Dutch female tennis players Dutch wheelchair tennis players Australian Open (tennis) champions Wimbledon champions Paralympic wheelchair tennis players for the Netherlands Paralympic gold medalists for the Netherlands Paralympic silver medalists for the Netherlands Paralympic medalists in wheelchair tennis Medalists at the 2012 Summer Paralympics Medalists at the 2016 Summer Paralympics Medalists at the European Para Championships Wheelchair tennis players at the 2012 Summer Paralympics Wheelchair tennis players at the 2016 Summer Paralympics Wheelchair tennis players at the 2020 Summer Paralympics Sportspeople from Winterswijk Tennis players from Gelderland ITF wheelchair tennis world champions 21st-century Dutch sportswomen