US Open: Montjane and Ramphadi kick off their campaigns on a good foot

JOHANNESBURG - Kgothatso Montjane and Donald Ramphadi won their opening matches at the US Open Wheelchair Championships.

The US Open happening from 5 September to 10 September becomes the first of the four majors to feature draw sizes of 16 players for each of the men’s, women’s, and quad singles.

On Tuesday, South Africa's Ramphadi took down American Andrew Bogdanov 6-2, 6-2 in the first round of the quad singles event.

The leading wheelchair tennis quad player, Ramphadi will either face his Roland Garros doubles partner Andy Lapthorne or Robert Shaw next.

The expanded draw size for the quad division in New York sees new nations added to the list of those countries that have contested wheelchair draws at the majors.

Meanwhile, on Wednesday, SA's top women's wheelchair tennis player, Montjane defeated Argentine Maria Moreno 6-2, 6-1.
Her next match will be against world no 4, Japan's Momoko Ohtani.

Ohtani and Montjane have faced off 10 times before, with Ohtani currently leading their head-to-head series 6-4.

In June, Montjane and Ramphadi raised South Africa's flag high at Roland Garros by becoming Grand Slam champions.

In May, Montjane bagged both the singles and doubles titles at the ITF 2 Series held in Spain.

Earlier in the year, along with her doubles partner Yui Kamiji, they secured the doubles title at the Japan Open tournament, taking down Jiske Griffioen and Momoko Ohtani.

Ramphadi won the wheelchair quad singles title at the Belgian Open - ITF 1 series - tennis tournament in Jambes, Belgium, in 2022 - the very year he made his Wimbledon debut.