By KOSUKE INAGAKI/ Senior Staff Writer
January 23, 2023 at 17:03 JST
Shingo Kunieda plays at a Tokyo Paralympic match on Sept. 4, 2021. (Toshiyuki Takeya)
After winning the Paralympic singles gold medal three times and the Lifetime Golden Slam, wheelchair tennis great Shingo Kunieda decided that he had no further worlds to conquer.
The world's top-ranked player tweeted on Jan. 22 that he has decided to retire from the professional ranks. He plans to hold a news conference on Feb. 7.
Kunieda, 38, has won singles titles at the four major tournaments 28 times.
He won his first Wimbledon singles championship in July 2022, which had long eluded him, to achieve the Lifetime Golden Slam, meaning winning the four major tournaments and the Paralympics.
Kunieda started playing the sport two years after a spinal tumor left him in a wheelchair when he was 9.
He won his U.S. Open men's singles title in 2006 and became one of the first professional para athletes in Japan in 2009.
Kunieda has established himself as the top wheelchair tennis player in the world, earned multiple corporate sponsorships and become an ambassador of para sports in Japan.
He was named as Team Japan’s captain for the Tokyo Paralympics in 2021, where he won his third gold medal without losing a set in any of his matches.
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