Ahmet Kaplan Explained

Ahmet Kaplan
Residence:Mersin, Turkey
Birth Date:2002 1, df=y
Birth Place:Akdeniz, Mersin, Turkey
Plays:Right-handed,
Updated:6 June 2024

Ahmet Kaplan (born 1 January 2002) is a Turkish wheelchair tennis player who competes in the quad class of international level events.

Career

2022

Kaplan started his wheelchair tennis career competing in the quad category in 2022. Within a brief time, he made great development, and attracted attention by his performance at tournaments organized by the Turkish Physically Disabled Sports Federation (Turkish: Türkiye Bedensel Engelliler Spor Federasyonu, TBESF).

He ranked second in the singles event of the Tenis Akıncılar Qualifying Tournament, and became champion in the doubles event at the International Aspendos Open in Antalya. Moreover, he won the gold medal in the doubles event at the TBESF Open Tournament, took the silver medal in the doubles event of the International Antalya Open Tournament the same year.

With his performance, he rose from the 76th place to 53rd in the world ranking.

2023

He participated at the Johor Open 2023 Tennis Tournament in Malesia.

He took part at the 2023 US Open – Men's Wheelchair Tennis. He lost the first round match in the quad singles event to Dutch Sam Schrödert. He and his teammate Uğur Altınel lost the quarter-final match in the quad doubles event against Tomáš Masaryk from Slovakia and Brazilian Ymanitu Silva.

He won the bronze medal in the quad singles event of the 2023 European Para Championships in Rotterdam, Netherlands.

2024

In January 2024, Kaplan took part at the Grand Slam level Australian Open – Men's Wheelchair Tennis. He lost the first round match of the quad singles event against Dutch Niels Vink. He and his Slovak teammate Tomáš Masaryk lost the first round match in the quad doubles event to Donald Ramphadi (South Africa) and Guy Sasson (Israel).

In June 2024, Kaplan won his first ITF title defeating Canadian Robert Shaw in the final match at the Open International de Royan 2024 Tennis Tournament in France.

In May 2024, Kaplan competed in the quad singles event of the Tram Barcelona Open. He defeated world's number 4 Donald Ramphadi from South Africa, but lost to world's number 1 in the final. He finished the tournament as runner-up.

As of end May 2024, Kaplan won four champion titles, and rose to the world rank 8 in quad singles. He helped the Turkey wheelchair tennis quad team become world number 2.

Personal life

Ahmet Kaplan was born on 1 January 2022, and lives in Akdeniz, Mersin, southern Turkey.

At age eight, he lost his legs due to electric shock accident.