A total of eight British wheelchair tennis players have qualified for the International Tennis Federation's season-end singles and doubles championships after the entries were announced this week for November's 2013 NEC Wheelchair Tennis Masters and ITF Wheelchair Doubles Masters.
After recently making their debuts in the final Grand Slam of the year at the US Open, Gordon Reid, Lucy Shuker, Jordanne Whiley and Andy Lapthorne will all contest the NEC Wheelchair Tennis Masters, the year-end highlight for the world's top ranked men's, women's and quad singles players.
Lapthorne will bid to reach the quad singles final for the third successive year, the current world No. 3 having twice finished runner-up in each of the last two years, while after making his NEC Masters debut in 2012, world No. 6 Reid will hope to be among the leading contenders for the men's singles title.
World No. 7 Shuker will contest the women's singles at the NEC Masters for the fourth time since 2008, with world No. 8 Whiley set to make her NEC Masters debut.
Reid will partner current world No. 1 men's doubles player Stephane Houdet in the field of eight men's pairings for the ITF Wheelchair Doubles Masters, having reached the final of the corresponding event in Amsterdam in 2012 when partnering Dutchman Ronald Vink.
British No. 2 Marc McCarroll will partner American former world No. 1 singles and doubles player Steve Welch, while British No. 3 David Phillipson will join forces with Japan's Yoshinobu Fujimoto after both McCarroll and Phillipson qualified for their fourth successive Doubles Masters.
In the women's doubles Shuker and Whiley will partner the same overseas players with whom they have both reached Grand Slam finals this season. Shuker and Dutchwoman Marjolein Buis were runners-up at the Australian Open in January, with Whiley partnering Japan's Yui Kamiji to the Wimbledon women's doubles final in July. Shuker is a three-time Doubles Masters runner-up and reached the final partnering Whiley in 2010.
After reaching career high quad doubles rankings at No. 5 and No. 7 respectively this year and winning a string of ITF 2 Series doubles titles together in recent seasons, Antony Cotterill and Adam Field will make their debuts in the elite field of four quad doubles pairings.
"It's the second time since 2010 that a record eight British players have qualified for the ITF's year-end championships and the first time ever that four Brits are set to contest the NEC Masters alone in what has been another successful year for the Tennis Foundation's Wheelchair Tennis Programme," said Geraint Richards, the Tennis Foundation's Head of Disability Player Performance.
"I'm sure all eight British players will acquit themselves well in California and we look forward to the Tennis Foundation hosting the NEC Wheelchair Tennis Masters in the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park from next year as we continue to build on the success of the London 2012 Paralympics."
The 2013 NEC Wheelchair Tennis Masters and ITF Wheelchair Doubles Masters will both take place in Mission Viejo, California, USA, between 5 - 11 November.
*ParalympicsGB player Louise Hunt will also be competing at the Doubles Masters following a withdrawal teaming up with Japan's Miho Nijo to take the total of British players competing to nine.
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