Israeli wheelchair tennis champion Guy Sasson is going for gold at Wimbledon

Two-times French Open winner Guy Sasson is aiming for his first Wimbledon title when the wheelchair tournament starts on Wednesday.

Guy, 45, from Ramat Gan, was a tennis fan since childhood, later playing regularly and competing in tournaments, but it wasn’t until he was injured in a snowboarding accident 10 years ago that he turned professional. Tennis was part of his rehabilitation and that’s how he discovered wheelchair tennis.

In January 2015, Guy was snowboarding in France when he fell and tumbled 33 feet, sustaining major injuries to his back and legs. Doctors told him that he might never walk again. Following surgery on his spine and his hand and a year of rehab he did manage to walk but only with the aid of braces and canes.

After his surgery Guy was introduced to “a very cosmic place in Israel” – the Spivak Sports Center for the Disabled, which aims to help people with disabilities be as independent as possible by training them to do sport. When Guy first went along he was adamant that he didn’t want to do any sport that involved the wheelchair so swimming was the only thing that interested him.

“But then I saw the special wheelchair for playing tennis I thought ‘wow’. So I started to play, and after a few sessions the coach got me really involved in the team, and she took me with to a tournament – even though I was playing terribly! She took me as the fourth player, just to feel it. Once I landed there, and I saw the tour, and I saw the level, and I saw the players from all over the world, I knew that this is what I wanted to do.”

From then on Guy put everything into it. He trained hard and won the Israel Wheelchair Tennis Championship in 2019.

In 2024 he competed in the quad singles (for players who use wheelchairs and have some upper limb impairment), at Roland Garros in Paris and it was here that he won his won his first Grand Slam title, which he dedicated to the four hostages who had been rescued that day. He also competed in the Paralympic Games in Paris last year and won a bronze medal.

The wheelchairs are customised to each player, because the each player has specific disabilities. Guy says: “Able bodied players hit with their hands and run with their legs. When we play, we hit with our hands and we run with our hands. It’s not easy. You learn the technique and you learn what you need to do and slowly, slowly, you understand how to manoeuvre the wheelchair. Then you combine the different types of strokes, and eventually you’re there.”

Guy and his wife Aya, who is a gynaecologist, are currently based in Houston, Texas, where she is doing specialist medical training. They have four children, the oldest of whom (15) has travelled to London to watch his father play. Guy is passionate about his home country, where he has a real estate firm, and says they will go back there to live.

For now, though, he travels worldwide to compete in tournaments – from Paris to Melbourne, from New York to London and says that everywhere he goes he gets welcomed by the Jewish community. “They know that I’m coming and they welcome me, and they hug me, and they give me a very warm feeling. They come to support me playing and bring the Israeli flag with them. They always tell me it’s not very often they have the chance to go out, especially these days, with a flag and sing the Hatikvah and be proud of who they are. I’m happy that I’m giving them the chance to do that.”

Guy knows that being an Israeli on the circuit means that he is “high maintenance” for the security teams at the tournaments, but says that he hasn’t experienced any antisemitism. “Within the tour, the players and coaches and the organisers all are very kind and try to give us a warm feeling”.

All tennis players say that Wimbledon is their favourite tournament and the one they want to win. It’s the same for Guy. “Wimbledon is the top of the mountain and I want to climb it. But it’s a big challenge – grass is not the best surface for for my type of game and I’ve had to make a few adjustments to my wheelchair. Clay is better for me and I was thrilled to win the French Open two years running but of course I got injured in France, so I can’t say that France is the best for me.

“Sometimes life treats you in a way that you never know what you’re going to get but I’m so happy that I was good enough to play wheelchair tennis and get to where I’m at right now.”