Competitors Kirk Hughes and Cornelia Oosthuizen of United Kingdom began the day facing off against Pearce Bourassa and Kelly Scanlan of Team Canada. The final score of the match was 6-0, with United Kingdom winning all sets against Canada.
The second match of the day was Netherlands versus New Zealand. The competitors Jelle van der Steen and Ronald van Dort of Netherlands against competitors Darryl Burton and Stephen Fell of New Zealand. At the start, the Dutch were trailing, but by the third set their momentum changed, and they began to win set after set.
Despite the rough start, Netherlands competitors Jelle van der Steen and Ronald van Dort
ended up winning their match with a score of 6-3.
After the match ended, Jelle van der Steen and Ronald van Dort high-fived each other and smiled and looked up and waved at the crowd. The father of Jelle van der Steen and the mother of Ronald van Dort were watching their sons compete.
“I am so excited to see my son and his friend Jelle play wheelchair tennis here at the Invictus Games in Toronto,” said Ronald’s mother. Even though Ronald van Dort and Jelle van der Steen have been training and playing with each other for a few months, they have been friends for two years.
“Jelle and Roland will also compete in wheelchair basketball and swimming, it is great to see them playing sports they love,” said Jelle’s father. After their match, Jelle and Ronald spoke about their experience playing with each other.
“We have been playing tennis together for a few months now. A very short time,” Jelle said. They enjoy playing wheelchair tennis, but wheelchair basketball is their sport. “We play wheelchair tennis well but we are wheelchair basketball players. That is our sport and wheelchair tennis is our extra sport,” Ronald said.
Their teamwork and bond really helped them with the win, “We were really buddies today, he is like my little brother,” Jelle said. They spoke about their experience being in Toronto and in Canada for the first time, “it is fantastic” said Ronald. “There are no words that can describe how great the people are and how we were welcomed. Everybody is so nice. It is really beautiful,” said Jelle.