British No. 1 players Gordon Reid and Jordanne Whiley were both honoured as the British Wheelchair Tennis Awards for 2013 were presented during the National Championships at the National Tennis Centre last week.
World No. 4 Reid won Male Player of the Year at the end of a season in which he beat the world's top two ranked players on two occasions each and beat the world's top three ranked players in successive days in October to win his first ITF 1 Series men's singles title in France. Reid also reached two Grand Slam singles semi-finals, at Roland Garros and the US Open, and the men's doubles final at Roland Garros before ending his international season by partnering Frenchman Stephane Houdet to become Doubles Masters champion.
World No. 7 Whiley also won her first ITF 1 Series women's singles titles this season, at the Atlanta Open and the Daegu Open in Korea during a year when she also reached career high singles and doubles rankings. Whiley was also a doubles finalist at Wimbledon, partnering Japan's Yui Kamiji, and the duo ended the year with victory at the Doubles Masters in California, where Whiley became the first Brit to win the women's doubles title. She was also the first Brit to reach the women's singles semi-finals at the year-end NEC Wheelchair Tennis Masters.
World No. 1 junior Alfie Hewett was named Junior of the Year after remaining world No. 1 junior for the whole year and retaining his boys' singles and doubles titles at the Cruyff Foundation Junior Masters in France in January. He went on to remain unbeaten in his singles matches as Great Britain won the junior title at the BNP Paribas World Team Cup in May and in senior competition 15-year-old Hewett reached his first ITF 2 Series men's singles final, won five ITF 3 Series singles titles and eight doubles titles in total. He ended 2013 by also being named Aegon GB Junior Player of the Year.
Hewett figured in two awards on the night, as he, Lauren Jones and Luz Esperanza Merry were named Team of the Year following GB's victory in the junior event at the World Team Cup. Merry won her first ever wheelchair tennis match to help Great Britain to an early round-robin group win over Tanzania and, with Jones having recovered from illness earlier in the week, she and Hewett came from a set and 3-0 down in the deciding doubles rubber of the final against Spain to win a championship tie-break for a 4-6, 7-5, (10-4) victory, avenging GB's earlier loss to Spain in the round-robin phase of the event.
With the National Development Series Finals taking place along the British Championships, two of the awards were for Best Newcomer and Tournament of the Year.
On the eve of his final round-robin match in the National Development Series Finals, Shazad Afzal was named Best Newcomer after finishing third in the points accumulator for the Development Summer Series tournaments in 2013. Afzal was also runner-up in the B Division singles in Edinburgh and then took maximum points in the men's singles in Leeds before reaching the quarter-finals at the Oxstalls tournament in Gloucester and also picking up points at the Shrewsbury Open.
The Shrewsbury Open was named Tournament of the Year after again being one of the most popular tournaments on the Tennis Foundation Wheelchair Tennis Development Series calendar. Organised by the team from the Shropshire Wheelchair Tennis Group, the tournament was well supported and was completed under very difficult circumstances after a member of the Shropshire Wheelchair Tennis Group passed away whilst at home.
Two awards were presented to Mike Hayes, the referee for more than 20 years for some of Britain's highest profile tournaments, including the National Championships, the British Open Wheelchair Tennis Championships and the Nottingham Indoor. Mike was presented with the Jim Cochrane Award, which is awarded annually in memory of the former President of the LTA and former Chairman of the Tennis Foundation, in recognition of immense contribution to wheelchair tennis in Great Britain. A special award was also presented to Mike in recognition of his outstanding contribution to the sport over many years.
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