25 October 2010
LEADING BRITONS AMONG WORLD CLASS ENTRY FOR 16th NOTTINGHAM INDOOR WHEELCHAIR TOURNAMENT
A PART OF THE NEC WHEELCHAIR TENNIS TOUR - ITF 2 SERIES STATUS - SANCTIONED BY THE ITF
Maikel Scheffers of the Netherlands and Britain’s Peter Norfolk OBE return to defend their men’s singles and quad singles titles respectively when a host of world top 10 ranked players line up for the 16th Nottingham Indoor Wheelchair Tennis Tour, a part of the NEC Wheelchair Tennis Tour, which takes place at the City of Nottingham Tennis Centre from Thursday 28th to Sunday 31st October.
Sixty eight players from eight countries are set to contest Britain’s sixth and final world ranking event on the 2010 NEC Wheelchair Tennis Tour, including many who are using the event to gauge their form ahead of next month’s NEC Singles Masters and Camozzi Doubles Masters, the season-end highlights for the world’s leading wheelchair tennis players.
They include men’s world No 2 Scheffers, who won his second Nottingham Indoor title in 2009 before going on to be crowned NEC Singles Masters champion for the first time. However, French world No 10 Frederic Cattaneo and Nottinghamshire’s own British No 1 David Phillipson will hope to challenge the Dutchman for the title this year as they occupy two of the other top four seeded positions alongside Scheffers.
Bingham’s Phillipson is enjoying something of a breakthrough year in 2010 and is no stranger to excelling at a venue that he regards as ‘home’, having beaten Cattaneo in the first round of July’s British Open on his last competitive visit to Nottingham. Phillipson went on to reach the last eight of the British Open, which is one of three quarter-finals he has reached this season at Super Series level, the highest tier of stand-alone wheelchair tennis tournament outside of these events integrated into the Grand Slams.
Cattaneo was Phillipson’s second top 10 scalp this season when they met at the British Open and Phillipson will be hoping for a similarly impressive performance this week as he aims for go beyond the quarter-finals for the first time at the Nottingham Indoor, which has ITF 2 Series status, two grades below the Grand Slam and Super Series tournaments.
Meanwhile, British No 2 Gordon Reid and British No 3 Marc McCarroll have both enjoyed splendid seasons to date, with Cattaneo being among two top 10 players that Reid has also beaten this year and Reid and McCarroll will aim to impress as they fill seeded positions alongside players from Belgium and Hungary.
Norfolk collected his fourth Nottingham Indoor quad singles title in 2009 before emulating Scheffers and going on to become NEC Singles Masters Champion in Amsterdam. The two-time Paralympic champion and recent US Open Grand Slam runner-up arrives in Nottingham as the world No 1 quad singles player once again and will start as a hot favourite, but a strong domestic entry for the quad singles will see world No 6 Andrew Lapthorne bid to challenge Norfolk’s dominance, while the two players will team up for the quad doubles ahead of their tilt at November’s Camozzi Doubles Masters.
Former world No 5 and Beijing Paralympic quad doubles bronze medallist Jamie Burdekin adds to a strong home challenge in the quad singles as he bids to move back towards the world’s top 10, having returned to action in the summer after wrist surgery.
Burdekin was among several British players to earn ITF 2 Series singles and doubles titles last month in Canada and the USA, including Britain’s top two ranked women players, Lucy Shuker and Jordanne Whiley.
Shuker is among three world top 10 players in the line-up for the women’s singles, sandwiched between top seed and world No 6 Aniek van Koot and third seed and world No 10 Marojelin Buis, but world No 8 Shuker has beaten both Dutchwomen this season and will aim to repeat her 2008 Nottingham Indoor triumph, when she beat van Koot in the final.
Whiley’s last competitive effort in Nottingham saw her reach the semi-finals of July’s British Open after a career-best victory over French world No 5 Florence Alix-Gravellier, the 2009 Nottingham Indoor women’s singles champion. However, with Alix-Gravellier having since announced her retirement from the sport, world No 13 Whiley will have her sights set on the other top 10 opponents above her this week, having lost out to van Koot in three sets in the quarter-finals of last year’s tournament.
The Nottingham Indoor Wheelchair Tennis Tournament, a part of the NEC Wheelchair Tennis Tour, begins on Thursday, 28th October, with the finals on Sunday, 31st October. Entry is FREE to all spectators throughout the tournament.
The tournament is supported by Nottingham City Council, Babolat, Highland Spring, as well as the Tennis Foundation and the National Wheelchair Tennis Association of Great Britain (NWTA).