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How Diede de Groot won an unprecedented back-to-back calendar grand slam | CNN

Published

2 years ago

October 11, 2022

How Diede de Groot won an unprecedented back-to-back calendar grand slam | CNN

CNN
—

At first look, profitable appears impossibly simple for Diede de Groot; an nearly nonchalant behavior of 69 consecutive victories, yielding a Golden Slam – all 4 grand slams and a Paralympic gold medal – in 2021, adopted by a calendar grand slam in 2022.

Collectively, these achievements amounted to a back-to-back calendar grand slam by no means earlier than achieved in tennis as De Groot accomplished the set with victory at this 12 months’s US Open within the wheelchair ladies’s singles, confirming her standing as essentially the most dominant participant of her technology.

However within the wake of such a powerful run, profitable each event she enters has turn out to be anticipated, creating extra stress with each victory.

“There’s a lot stress. Even final 12 months, that Golden Slam was like a bit little bit of a darkish cloud hanging over the 12 months,” De Groot tells CNN Sport.

“Every part was going nicely however there was this huge cloud of stress simply pushing on the truth that [everyone thought] I used to be the one which was going to do it, however I didn’t know if I used to be going to have the ability to do it.”

Because the 12 months progressed, the 25-year-old ticked off every milestone of a Golden Slam and, regardless of the mounting stress, she dropped simply two units alongside the way in which, and added three grand slam doubles titles in addition to one other Paralympic gold medal in doubles for good measure.

This 12 months, she continued her extraordinary type, as soon as once more sweeping the singles grand slams and selecting up one other three in doubles.

However reasonably than changing into misplaced amid all this stress, De Groot focuses on the smaller issues, setting her personal objectives for every match unrelated to the outcome and marking every win by having fun with a “chilled night time” along with her coach.

“We’re additionally simply so completely satisfied to be again residence and be with household as a result of I really feel like my household is aware of what I do for it essentially the most,” she says.

“They know what I’ve to undergo and what it means for me. So actually, after I’m with the household, they know what troubles I’ve gone by to get that plate or that trophy … And I feel that’s my a part of trying again and celebrating a bit bit.”

For all these accomplishments, it was solely a coincidence that De Groot ever picked up a tennis racket aged seven, as a part of a rehabilitation program following surgical procedures on her proper leg which is shorter than her left leg.

“They only mentioned to me, ‘Would you wish to play tennis as a result of it’s close to your home?’” she recollects.

“And I assumed, my grandmother’s enjoying, a few of my cousins are enjoying. And so I began enjoying.”

First invented in 1976, wheelchair tennis is performed based on precisely the identical guidelines as able-bodied tennis, besides that gamers can let the ball bounce twice.

“I initially cherished it as a result of I used to be the identical as all the opposite children that have been within the group,” De Groot provides.

“All of us struggled a bit bit with the wheelchair and holding the racket … Perhaps with my pals generally I felt like I used to be a bit bit completely different as a result of generally I couldn’t stroll as lengthy or couldn’t run as quick.”

In time, De Groot started enjoying nationwide wheelchair tennis tournaments the place, with out age classes, she confronted gamers of their twenties, thirties and even forties, earlier than she was scouted for the Dutch nationwide program and invited to worldwide junior tournaments.

Whereas nonetheless a junior, De Groot skilled on the Nationwide Heart, enjoying with Aniek van Koot and Jiske Griffioen, who have been then world No. 1 and No. 3 respectively.

De Groot now plays doubles alongside Van Koot and they have won 11 doubles grand slam titles together.

“I may actually see the way it was achieved, and I may possibly even see what they have been doing after which have a look at myself and suppose, ‘Can I do it like that? Or do I make it even higher?’” she says.

“And I owe a lot of what I’ve discovered right now from them as a result of I used to be allowed to coach with them.”

As soon as De Groot reached the skilled circuit, her potential was shortly evident as she received a grand slam on the third try, however her early profession weaknesses turned seen too.

“Within the final two years, my psychological sport has gone up a lot,” she says. “Earlier than, I used to be good at tennis and I may already hit the photographs that I’m hitting right now. However then in my head, generally I might simply lose it.”

Enjoying in her first grand slam on the 2017 Australian Open, De Groot was defeated by Sabine Ellerbrock within the opening spherical – her solely loss to the German of their 19 profession conferences.

Shortly afterwards, she crashed out of the French Open within the first spherical once more after failing to transform her personal match factors, she recollects.

“Then at Wimbledon … I used to be like, ‘Okay, so I’ve misplaced my first match, I had probabilities to win my first match in my second event, however that didn’t occur, now I’m simply going to get pleasure from it,’ and I feel that’s what I did for the entire event,” De Groot says.

“I actually had no expectations and possibly that was the important thing to profitable that first one.”

When she received that first grand slam, De Groot was simply 20 years previous and unencumbered by the expectations she now faces.

“The precise shock feeling [after winning] has left, however nonetheless the sensation of pleasure and stuff, I feel that’s grown over time as a result of I’ve simply seen how regularly the stress will get on, prefer it will get increasingly more,” she provides.

“And my opponents … they make it tougher and tougher on me every time I play them. So I do know every time it’s getting tougher to maintain up the profitable streak.”

De Groot celebrates winning her first grand slam title at Wimbledon in 2017.

At each stage of her profession, De Groot has been challenged by her nice rival Yui Kamiji. Between them, the 2 ladies have received 22 of the final 23 grand slam tournaments, with Kamiji’s defensive brilliance offering the proper counterpart to De Groot’s extra aggressive fashion.

“She hit sure photographs that not one of the different gamers did so I made certain that in my coaching periods I might practice on these photographs,” De Groot says.

“Yui has taught me to be extra affected person and to actually anticipate my probabilities. I feel we’ve made one another cleverer gamers.”

Even throughout De Groot’s comparatively brief profession thus far, the profile of wheelchair tennis has elevated dramatically.

Wimbledon solely launched wheelchair singles into its program in 2016 – the 12 months earlier than De Groot’s title-winning debut – whereas the wheelchair tennis tournaments on the Australian Open have been held on completely different dates to the remainder of the grand slam for his or her first 5 editions till 2007.

“We might type of be there, however we weren’t included,” De Groot says, recalling tales from different gamers.

“So it was a bit bit prefer it’s known as the Australian Open, however actually it’s not inclusion in any respect. If you happen to have a look at it now, we’re on the identical time, we play on the identical courts, we use the identical locker room and so there’s so many variations and such huge adjustments have already occurred.”

This 12 months, 16 gamers featured within the males’s and girls’s wheelchair singles on the US Open – the most important ever discipline at a grand slam – whereas a junior event was additionally held there for the primary time, and the ITF Wheelchair Tennis Tour now incorporates over 150 occasions.

So far, de Groot has won 15 grand slam singles titles and 15 grand slam doubles titles.

There may be nonetheless a protracted strategy to go, nevertheless.

As De Groot factors out, extra visibility is required for wheelchair tennis gamers in order that the larger courts on which they now play, such because the Louis Armstrong Stadium on the US Open or No.1 Courtroom at Wimbledon, are stuffed by followers.

“My dream is to get wheelchair tennis to a spot the place folks really purchase tickets to go and see us,” De Groot says.

“I don’t count on anybody to surrender their Nadal ticket to swap it for us. However it will be nice to have just a few folks be like, you already know what, I’m going to go to Wimbledon right now simply to see the wheelchair tennis as a result of they’re so wonderful.”

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‘Mission South Africa’: How Trump Is Offering White Afrikaners Refugee Status

Published

7 hours ago

March 30, 2025

Press Room

‘Mission South Africa’: How Trump Is Offering White Afrikaners Refugee Status

Almost immediately after taking office, President Trump began shutting down refugee resettlement programs, slashing billions of dollars in funding and making it all but impossible for people from scores of countries to seek haven in the United States.

With one exception.

The Trump administration has thrown open the doors to white Afrikaners from South Africa, establishing a program called “Mission South Africa” to help them come to the United States as refugees, according to documents obtained by The New York Times.

Under Phase One of the program, the United States has deployed multiple teams to convert commercial office space in Pretoria, the capital of South Africa, into ad hoc refugee centers, according to the documents. The teams are studying more than 8,200 requests expressing interest in resettling to the United States and have already identified 100 Afrikaners who could be approved for refugee status. The government officials have been directed to focus particularly on screening white Afrikaner farmers.

The administration has also provided security escorts to officials conducting the interviews of potential refugees.

By mid-April, U.S. officials on the ground in South Africa will “propose long-term solutions, to ensure the successful implementation of the president’s vision for the dignified resettlement of eligible Afrikaner applicants,” according to one memo sent from the embassy in Pretoria to the State Department in Washington this month.

The administration’s focus on white Afrikaners comes as it effectively bans the entry of other refugees — including about 20,000 people from countries like Afghanistan, Congo and Syria who were ready to travel to the United States before Mr. Trump took office. In court filings about those other refugees, the administration has argued that core functions of the refugee program had been “terminated” after the president’s ban, so it did not have the resources to take in any more people.

“There’s no subtext and nothing subtle about the way this administration’s immigration and refugee policy has obvious racial and racist overtones,” said Vanessa Cárdenas, the executive director of America’s Voice. “While they seek to single out Afrikaners for special treatment, they simultaneously want us to think mostly Black and brown vetted newcomers are dangerous despite their background checks and all evidence to the contrary.”

The program also inserts the United States into a charged debate inside South Africa, where some members of the white Afrikaner minority have begun a campaign to suggest that they are the true victims in post-apartheid South Africa. Under apartheid, a white minority government discriminated against South Africans of color, and brutality and violence flourished, leading to torture, disappearances and murder.

There have been murders of white farmers, the focus of the Afrikaner grievances, but police statistics show they are not any more vulnerable to violent crime than others in the country. In South Africa, more than 90 percent of the population comes from racial groups persecuted by the racist, apartheid regime.

In a statement, the State Department said it was focused on resettling Afrikaners who have been “victims of unjust racial discrimination.” The agency confirmed that it had begun interviewing applicants and said they would need to pass “stringent background and security checks.”

The decision to unleash resources for Afrikaners just starting the refugee process, while stonewalling court demands to process those fleeing other countries who have already been cleared for travel, risks upending an American refugee program that has been the foundation of the United States’ role for the vulnerable, according to resettlement officials.

“The government clearly has the ability to process applications when it wants to,” said Melissa Keaney, a senior supervising attorney for the International Refugee Assistance Project, the group representing plaintiffs trying to restart refugee processing.

Mr. Trump signed an executive order suspending refugee admissions on his first day in office, arguing that welcoming refugees could compromise resources for Americans. He added that future versions of the program should prioritize “only those refugees who can fully and appropriately assimilate into the United States.”

A federal judge in Seattle later temporarily blocked that executive order and instructed the administration to restore the refugee program. But the Trump administration still cut contracts with organizations that assist those applying for refugee status overseas, reducing the infrastructure needed to support people seeking refuge in the United States.

An appeals court ruled last week that the administration must admit those thousands of people who were granted refugee status before Mr. Trump entered office, but also declined to stop him from halting the admission of new refugees.

The Justice Department has for weeks deflected demands from refugee advocates accusing the administration of sidestepping the court order and delaying the process of almost every refugee previously granted a ticket to come to the United States. The Trump administration has said it has allowed a limited number of refugees who were vetted to enter the country, although the State Department declined to provide a number.

Lawyers for the Justice Department have argued both that the administration now lacks resources to help thousands of refugees and that in restarting the program the government reserves the right to “do so in a manner that reflects administration priorities.”

Mr. Trump has made clear what those priorities were when he created a refugee carve-out for white Afrikaners. Mr. Trump at the time accused the South African government of confiscating the land of white Afrikaners, backing a long-held conspiracy theory about the mistreatment of white South Africans in the post-apartheid era.

Mr. Trump was referring to a recent policy signed into law by the South African government, known as the Expropriation Act. It repeals an apartheid-era law and allows the government in certain instances to acquire privately held land in the public interest, without paying compensation, only after a justification process subject to judicial review.

Mr. Trump and his allies have for years echoed the grievances of Afrikaners. During his first term, Mr. Trump directed the State Department to investigate land seizures and “the large-scale killing of farmers.” Elon Musk, who was born in South Africa but is not of Afrikaner descent, has also falsely claimed that white farmers in South Africa were being killed every day.

Despite the claims, white people own half of South Africa’s land while making up just 7 percent of the country’s population. Police statistics do not show that they are any more vulnerable to violent crime than other people in the nation.

Ernst Roets, the former executive director of the Afrikaner Foundation, which lobbies for international support of the interests of Afrikaners, said many of his peers felt seen by Mr. Trump.

But he said the creation of the new refugee program had elicited debate among Afrikaners. Many do not want to leave their home, Mr. Roets said, but want the United States to back their efforts to claim “self-governance” in South Africa.

“I don’t know anyone — no one I’m aware of — that plans to move to America,” Mr. Roets said. “People who want to come to America, we would support that. If people want to relocate to America, the farmers or Afrikaners, we think they would make good Americans.”

“There’s a good fit,” he added.

Zumbe Baruti, a Congolese refugee living in South Carolina, said he spent decades in a refugee camp in Africa waiting for his turn to be accepted.

“Those white Africans are allowed to enter the United States, but Black Africans are denied entry to the United States,” Mr. Baruti, 29, said in Swahili. He said the pivot away from refugees who have waited in camps for years and to Afrikaners was a form of “discrimination.”

Mr. Baruti, a member of the Bembe people in the Democratic Republic of Congo, fled ethnic violence in the nation when he was a child. He was granted refugee status in 2023, but his wife and three children — the oldest 6 years old and the youngest just 2 — had yet to clear security vetting. He entered the United States two years ago, focused on getting a job, saving money and immediately applying for his family to join him.

When he entered, he said he was told by advisers helping him with his application that his family would most likely join him in two years.

He said that seemed unlikely as Mr. Trump turned his focus elsewhere.

“Regarding my family,” Mr. Baruti said, “hope has diminished.”

News

Trump threatens secondary tariffs on Russian oil if no deal on Ukraine

Published

9 hours ago

March 30, 2025

Press Room

Trump threatens secondary tariffs on Russian oil if no deal on Ukraine

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Donald Trump said he was “pissed off” with Vladimir Putin for foot-dragging in talks over a ceasefire with Ukraine, as the US president threatened secondary tariffs on buyers of Russian oil if no deal is done.

Trump’s comments on Sunday revealed the frustration at the White House with the Russian president as negotiations over a settlement of the war in Ukraine continue on without a clear breakthrough.

The new threat to hit imports from countries that purchase Russian oil come as Trump prepares to impose tariffs on goods from many of America’s largest trading partners on Wednesday. The president has proclaimed the moment “liberation day”, but the plan has caused turmoil in markets and anxiety among businesses and governments worldwide.

Trump’s outburst at Moscow is a shift in tone for the US president, who for weeks blamed Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the Ukrainian president, for being reluctant to strike a deal.

The US president chided Putin for attacking Zelenskyy’s legitimacy as Kyiv’s leader.

“If we’re in the midst of a negotiation, you could say that I was very angry, pissed off . . . when Putin started getting into Zelenskyy’s credibility,” Trump told NBC News. “That’s not going in the right location, you understand?”

While Ukraine has agreed to American demands for a full 30-day ceasefire, Russia has rebuffed the plan and conceded only to a truce regarding energy infrastructure targets and maritime operations in the Black Sea — and only if the west first lifts sanctions on some agricultural goods.

Zelenskyy has accused Russia of breaking the energy ceasefire at least twice since it was agreed. “Russia must be forced into peace — only pressure will work,” he said this weekend.

Finnish President Alexander Stubb, right. with Donald Trump at Mar-a-Lago on Saturday © Finnish Presidential Office/Instagram/Reuters

Finland’s president Alexander Stubb, who spent seven hours with Trump at his Mar-a-Lago resort on Saturday including a round of golf, told the Financial Times the US president was “running out of patience” with Putin over the ceasefire.

“I think we’re moving in the right direction,” said Stubb on a visit to London where he will on Monday debrief British prime minister Keir Starmer on his discussions with Trump.

Stubb said he had proposed setting a deadline of April 20 — which marks three months since Trump returned to the White House — to accept a 30-day unconditional truce on land, sea and in the air. Both western and eastern Christian churches will celebrate Easter on April 20 this year, a rare calendar alignment.

“The Russians are stalling, they’re coming up with new conditions,” Stubb said. “Let’s call Putin’s bluff for what it is. Russia at this stage does not want peace. So we need to force peace on Russia.”

Trump had previously threatened Russia with new tariffs and sanctions if it resisted an agreement, but expanding the trade bluster to buyers of Russian oil in other countries will add more pressure on Putin.

“If a deal isn’t made, and if I think it was Russia’s fault, I’m going to put secondary sanctions on Russia,” Trump told NBC.

Trump did not offer a clear explanation of what the plan would involve. He said “anybody buying oil from Russia will not be able to sell their product, any product, not just oil, into the United States”, but also said there would be a “25 to 50-point tariff on all oil”.

The US president added that he would slap “secondary tariffs” on Iran if they failed to make a deal on its nuclear programme, as he renewed his threat of “bombing” Tehran if they did not strike an agreement.

News

Iran rejects direct nuke talks as Trump threatens 'bombing' – DW – 03/30/2025

Published

9 hours ago

March 30, 2025

Press Room

Iran rejects direct nuke talks as Trump threatens 'bombing' – DW – 03/30/2025

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian on Sunday rebuked the idea of direct negotiations with US President Donald Trump’s administration over its nuclear program.

Pezeshkian: US must ‘build trust’ after earlier breached promises

“We responded to the US president’s letter via Oman and rejected the option of direct talks, but we are open to indirect negotiations,” Pezeshkian said during a sitdown with his cabinet broadcast on Iranian TV.

“We don’t avoid talks; it’s the breach of promises that has caused issues for us so far,” Pezeshkian said. “They must prove that they can build trust.”

During Trump’s first term in 2018, he pulled the US out of a nuclear agreement with Iran known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).

Iran and Russia look to forge stronger ties against West

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That deal provided sanctions relief for Iran, with the Iranian government in exchange curbing its nuclear program and allowing inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency to periodically view its enrichment sites. France, Germany, Russia, the UK and the EU are some of the other parties signed onto the JCPOA.

Trump vows ‘bombing’ if no new Iran nuclear deal

Trump sent a letter to Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei earlier this month, urging Iran to reach a new nuclear deal with the US in his second term in the White House.

In an interview with US broadcaster NBC News, Trump made new threats towards Iran if there is no new nuclear agreement with the US.

“If they don’t make a deal,” Trump told the outlet on Saturday evening, referring to Iran. “There will be bombing. It will be bombing the likes of which they have never seen before.”

Trump claimed that representatives from the US and Iran are “talking” on the matter.

Trump orders strikes on Houthi rebels in Yemen

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The Trump administration has a “maximum pressure” approach towards Iran, which aims to both economically and politically isolate Tehran.

The Trump administration has also vowed to crack down on so-called Iranian proxies in the Middle East region, with the US currently attacking the Iran-backed Houthis in Yemen.

Edited by: Roshni Majumdar