Mayor of London Boris Johnson has today welcomed the world’s best wheelchair tennis players back to London with a game of mini tennis at City Hall. An elite field of 20 players is in London to compete in the NEC Wheelchair Tennis Masters at Lee Valley Hockey and Tennis Centre, the venue which was known as Eton Manor during London 2012.
British player Jordanne Whiley met the Mayor, a keen tennis player, at City Hall to hand out some top tips. This year has seen unprecedented success for British players with Whiley completing a Grand Slam of doubles titles at the Australian Open, Roland Garros, Wimbledon and the US Open, where Andy Lapthorne also won his first quad singles Grand Slam title.
The Mayor of London, Boris Johnson said: “The NEC Wheelchair Tennis Masters is the latest major sporting spectacular to be held in the capital. It underlines the incredible legacy of hosting the London 2012 Games and is a brilliant chance to see some of our Paralympic stars in action. Over the coming years, London will be holding the Rugby Union World Cup final, the World Athletics Championships and the final of the Euro 2020 football championships. It is fantastic that we can add the NEC Wheelchair Tennis Masters to that stellar line-up and Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park will provide an inspirational setting for competitors and spectators alike.”
Whiley, who picked up Paralympic bronze in the women's doubles with Lucy Shuker at London 2012, can’t wait to play in front of a home crowd again in London:
“I hope that we’ll have lots of fans cheering us Brits on once again, just like we had at the Paralympics and I’m sure that will inspire me to another personal best performance. It will be so good to be back at the place where I won my bronze medal in 2012 and relive those fantastic memories. After reaching the last four of the NEC Masters on my debut last year I'm excited to see what the Masters holds for me this year.”
As well the British contingent there will be a host of international stars for the crowd to get behind at the NEC Wheelchair Tennis Masters as South African Paralympians Lucas Sithole and Kgothatso Monthane were also welcomed back to London by the Mayor ahead of doing battle to be crowned 2014 Master of their division.
Hosted by the Tennis Foundation, the NEC Wheelchair Tennis Masters is the sport’s most prestigious event outside of the four Grand Slam tournaments and is part of UK Sport’s Gold Event Series. Only the top eight ranked men’s and women’s singles players and the top four ranked quad singles players qualify to make the field in the International Tennis Federation’s year-end event. This is the third successive year that there has been at least one Brit in all three competitions at the Masters.
Over a thousand local school children, as well as members of community and disability groups, have taken up the opportunity to come and play tennis in a dedicated activity zone before being inspired by the world class action on the show courts.
For a full list off the 20 players for the NEC Wheelchair Tennis Master please click here.
Tickets for the NEC Wheelchair Tennis Masters can be purchased here or via telephone at 0871 220 0260 (calls cost 10p per minute plus network extras).