Two-time Paralympic quad singles gold medallist Peter Norfolk and defending women’s singles champion Jordanne Whiley head the entries for the 2011 National Wheelchair Tennis Championships, which takes place at Oxstalls Indoor Tennis Centre, Gloucester over the Bank Holiday Weekend of Friday 27th May to Monday 30th May.
Meanwhile, some of the country’s younger players will compete for honours in the Lord’s Taverners Wheelchair Tennis Junior Championships, which takes place alongside the National Championships for the third successive year.
Hampshire-based Norfolk is a former National champion in the quad singles division, but with many of Britain’s leading quad players on tour internationally as the wheelchair tennis qualification window for the London 2012 Paralympic Games gets underway, Norfolk will bid for a unique double as he takes part in the men’s singles this year, alongside a varied field of experienced players and some of Britain’s up-and-coming younger players.
At the end of last month Norfolk helped Great Britain’s quad team to win a bronze medal in the ITF World Team Cup in South Africa, the annual team event for wheelchair tennis, where Alfie Hewett and Josh Steels were part of the Great Britain team that finished fourth in the junior event.
Hewett, who became the youngest Briton to attain a senior men’s singles world ranking in July 2010 at the age of just 12, will join Steels amongst Norfolk’s challengers in the men’s singles, with the entry also including former Great Britain international Andrew McErlean and Jersey’s James Brady, who won the men’s second draw singles in 2010.
Great Britain won a bronze medal in the women’s event at the 2011 ITF World Team Cup and both of Britain’s women’s team members, Warwickshire’s Whiley and Louise Hunt, from Wiltshire head the entries for the women’s singles a year after contesting the deciding match for the National title. Eighteen-year-old Whiley will bid for her fourth women’s singles crown in five years. Meanwhile, a year after winning the women’s B Division singles, Cheltenham’s Emma Aldred-Tow will get the chance to compete in the women’s main draw.
The Lord’s Taverners Wheelchair Tennis Junior Championships, part of the Lord’s Taverners Wheelchair Tennis Junior Development Programme, takes place on Saturday 28th and Sunday, 29th May. Now in its third year, the event will see Norfolk-based Hewett return to Gloucester to try and successfully defend the boys’ singles title he won in 2010.
The 2009 junior boys’ winner Ian Payne, from Kent is also among the boy’s entries. Warwickshire’s Charlotte Moore also returns to try and defend the girls’ singles title, with Lauren Jones from East Sussex and Hertfordshire’s Ella Beaumont providing her chief opposition.
The National Wheelchair Tennis Championships provides competitive opportunities for players of all standards and among the local players vying for success again this year will be Abbeymead’s Paul Arnold, who will contest the men’s B Division singles At the 2009 National Championships Arnold partnered Aldred-Tow to win the Novice Doubles.
The 2011 National Wheelchair Tennis Championships is supported by The Tennis Foundation and the National Wheelchair Tennis Association of Great Britain, as well as Babolat and Highland Spring.
Play begins at 9.30am on Friday, 27th May and entry is free to all spectators throughout the weekend, including finals day on Monday, 30th May.
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