Whiley into Final

02 November 2010

Both top seeds exited the men’s and women’s main draw singles on Saturday at the 16^th Nottingham Indoor Wheelchair Tennis Tour, a part of the NEC Wheelchair Tennis Tour, as Britain’s Jordanne Whiley reached her second international singles final of the year on a dramatic penultimate day of play at the City of Nottingham Tennis Centre.

Halesowen-based 18-year-old British No 2 Whiley beat world No 6 and 2008 runner-up Aniek van Koot of the Netherlands 6-3, 4-6, 7-6(3) in a pulsating women’s singles semi-final.

Fourth seed Whiley raced into a 3-0 lead before taking the first set and then twice came from behind to level the second set at 2-2 and 4-4 before van Koot levelled the match.  Both players exchanged breaks during the final set before it headed into a tie-break, with Whiley earning four match points and wrapping up her first ever victory over van Koot when the Dutchwoman sent a forehand sailing over her opponent’s baseline after three hours and 20 minutes of play.

Whiley will play Dutch second seed and world No 10 Marjolein Buis in the final after Buis also came through her semi-final in a deciding set tie-break, defeating German third seed Katharina Kruger 6-2, 4-6, 7-6(1).  Buis reeled off the last four games of the first set, but despite coming back from a 3-0 deficit in the second set she saw Kruger level the match.  Buis and Kruger exchanged breaks four times in the final set and Kruger saved two match points at 5-3 down, but she was unable to make an impact in the tie-break as Buis sealed victory to reach her second successive Nottingham Indoor final and her second ITF 2 Series final of 2010.

Buis and Whiley will both bid for the first ITF 2 Series titles of their careers on Sunday. 

While neither of the men’s singles semi-finals went to three sets, there was still plenty of drama as Belgian sixth seed Joachim Gerard knocked out defending champion and world No 2 Maikel Scheffers of the Netherlands.

Gerard will bid for the first ITF 2 Series title of his career on Sunday after ending the Dutchman’s bid for a third Nottingham Indoor title with a 7-6(5), 6-3 victory.  Scheffers went 5-3 up in the first set and had four set points at 5-4 up, but was unable to convert any of them as Gerard held on to snatch the set on his fourth set point.  Gerard then won four of the first five games in the second set en route to securing his second career victory over Scheffers.

In the other semi-final, Dutch fifth seed Tom Egberink had to take to the court in a tennis wheelchair belonging to one of his fellow players after the rear axle on his own chair was damaged during his warm-up   However, Egberink went on to push second seed Frederic Cattaneo in the opening set before the Frenchman won the last five games of the match to wrap up a 6-4, 6-1 victory.

While top seed and defending champion Peter Norfolk and second seed Andy Lapthorne had already secured their places in Sunday’s all-British quad singles final, Norfolk wrapped up victory in the quad doubles on Saturday with his Beijing Paralympic Games bronze medal-winning partner Jamie Burdekin.  In a three way-round robin contest, Burdekin and Norfolk won both of their matches in straight sets and now cannot be beaten despite the outcome of Sunday’s remaining match between fellow Britons Lapthorne and Liam O’Reilly and their training partner John Parfitt, who is paired with Dutch player Dorrie Timmermans.    

Meanwhile, there is British interest on both sides of the net in both of Sunday’s men’s doubles and women’s doubles finals.

Whiley will hope to a secure a brace of titles on Sunday after she and Buis paired up to beat German duo Sabine Ellerbrock and Kruger 6-2, 6-7(4), 6-4 in their women’s double semi-final.  Britain’s Louise Hunt will oppose Whiley after partnering van Koot to beat Germany’s Bianca Osterer and Christine Schoenn of France 6-0, 6-2 in the other semi-final.

In the men’s doubles, Nottinghamshire’s David Phillipson will aim to land a local victory after pairing up with fellow Briton Marc McCarroll to win their semi-final against Cattaneo and Slovakia’s David Chabrecek 6-2, 6-1.  McCarroll and Phillipson play another British doubles finalist, Scotland’s Gordon Reid, and his partner Egberink in the final.  Egberink and Reid overcame the all-Belgian duo of Mike Denayer and Gerard 7-6(5), 6-2 in the other semi-final.  

Sixty eight players from eight countries have been contesting 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 players.

The Nottingham Indoor Wheelchair Tennis Tournament, a part of the NEC Wheelchair Tennis Tour, concludes with finals day on Sunday, 31^st October.  Entry is again FREE to all spectators

The Nottingham Indoor 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).