Alton's Peter Norfolk goes in search of his fourth Australian Open title this week at Melbourne Park, the two-time Paralympic champion aiming to not only retain his title, but also his world No 1 quad singles ranking when the first major of the 2010 NEC Wheelchair Tennis Tour gets underway on Wednesday.
The 'Quadfather' heads a field consisting of the world's top four players and remains undefeated at Grand Slam events since quad singles wheelchair tennis was first played at the US Open at Flushing Meadows in 2007. Since then Norfolk has chalked up two Australian Open titles and two US Open titles and since 2001 he has amassed 16 wheelchair tennis major titles - one more than Roger Federer's current tally of Grand Slam titles.
Norfolk won his first Australian Wheelchair Open title in 2004 in the days when the NEC Wheelchair Tennis Tour event was held at Melbourne Park two weeks after the year's first Grand Slam, while the chance of an US Open title in New York in 2008 proved impossible as the event clashed with the dates of the Beijing Paralympics, where Norfolk won his second Paralympic gold medal.
"Coming out here from the winter weather we have had is a little different as I have been stuck in the snow various times over the Christmas and January period," said Norfolk, who has been training on the tennis court at his hotel since arriving in Melbourne midway through last week.
"I spent eight hours in the car and then got rescued by a police landrover just before Christmas, I have been stuck on my Powabike taking the dog out in the woods and then the week before I came out here I spent three days at the National Tennis Centre in Roehampton as I couldn't get home after a training session, although the chance of the additional training has helped me be a bit further forward in my training plans than last year."
Norfolk ended 2009 as the year-end world No 1 quad singles player for the fifth time in seven seasons after beating his American arch rival David Wagner in the final of the NEC Wheelchair Tennis Singles Masters for the second time in for years.
"I had a good 2009, winning the Australian and US Opens and the Masters without losing a set and to go back to No 1 was very satisfying, I intend to have a relatively easy tournament year in 2010 before working towards another Paralympic gold medal in London in 2012."
Norfolk will face Wagner, Sweden's Paralympic silver medallist Johan Andersson and American world No 4 Nick Taylor in three round-robin matches this week before the top two players after the round-robin stage of the event go forward to Saturday's final.
