Japanese Paralympic legend Shingo Kunieda said Tuesday he was ending his illustrious career satisfied that wheelchair tennis was now ¡°finally seen as a sport¡± in the eyes of the public.
Kunieda is known as the Roger Federer of wheelchair tennis and won 50 Grand Slam titles and four Paralympic gold medals, including a third singles title at the pandemic-delayed Tokyo Games in 2021.
The 38-year-old, who announced his retirement last month, also spent a total of 582 weeks as the men¡¯s world No. 1.
Kunieda said his first Paralympic gold medal at the 2004 Athens Games was not even reported on the sports pages of Japan¡¯s newspapers but that attitudes have since ¡°changed a lot.¡±
¡°After the Tokyo Games, it really felt like it was now being seen as a sport,¡± he told reporters.
¡°I had always been trying to get people to think of it as a sport, and last year I didn¡¯t feel the pressure to do that any more.
¡°Finally, I was able to just purely play tennis and compete against my opponent.¡±
Kunieda, who was diagnosed with spinal cancer as a child, said he ¡°didn¡¯t even know what the Paralympics were¡± when he first picked up a racket as an 11-year-old.
He ends his career as one of the Paralympics¡¯ greatest athletes, and was No. 1 in the International Tennis Federation¡¯s year-end rankings 10 times.
He also won all the Grand Slam singles titles in the same calendar year five times. The last prize to elude him was the Wimbledon men¡¯s singles title, which was introduced in 2016.
He chalked that off when he beat Britain¡¯s Alfie Hewett in last year¡¯s final.
¡°Wimbledon was the last title left for me to win, and after I hit the winning point, I celebrated with my team,¡± he said.
¡°The first words that slipped out my mouth were ¡®now I retire,¡¯ right there on the court.¡±
The Japanese government is considering giving Kunieda the prestigious People¡¯s Honor Award for achievements in sport, entertainment and culture.
Kunieda, who turned professional in 2009, said he has only a vague idea of what he intends to do next but he would like to continue contributing to wheelchair tennis.
His 16-year-old Japanese compatriot Tokito Oda reached the final of the Australian Open men¡¯s singles last month in only his third Grand Slam appearance.
¡°I think I¡¯ve left a bigger footprint than I thought I would when I turned professional,¡± Kunieda said.
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