Montjane, who is hoping for her first Wimbledon title after making her debut there in 2018, told ESPN last month: "I can only hope that all this inspires change. "When we were told that everyone had to stand by ourselves, that was when we knew it was going to be really difficult, because in South Africa, it's really difficult to get individual sponsors." Most wheelchair tennis players were actually Tennis South Africa to do most of the things for us. "I knew it was going to affect us, especially because we don't have proper sponsors individually. We used to have six tournaments in South Africa and now we're down to one. Ramphadi has been forced to retire from matches in the past due to faults with his secondhand wheelchair.Ī big blow was when the local game's major sponsor withdrew their funding before COVID, Ramphadi told ESPN: "Airports Company, which was the company that was really making things happen in wheelchair tennis. Ramphadi was one of two South African wheelchair tennis champions at Roland Garos, with Kgothatso Montjane winning the women's wheelchair doubles title with Yui Kamiji.īoth players have spoken out about the minimal funding from South Africa's sports ministry, as well as a lack of major sponsors. South Africa's Donald Ramphadi may have won the French Open quad wheelchair doubles title with partner Andy Lapthorne, but due to a lack of funding, Ramphadi is still battling against the odds ahead of Wimbledon. You have reached a degraded version of because you're using an unsupported version of Internet Explorer.įor a complete experience, please upgrade or use a supported browserĭonald Ramphadi won the French Open in a secondhand wheelchair, can he do it at Wimbeldon?
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |