Great Britain’s Jordanne Whiley and Lucy Shuker will be competing in different sides of the draw for the Wimbledon Wheelchair Doubles Event, which gets underway with the wommen semi-finals on Friday, as three Brits on the Tennis Foundation’s Wheelchair Tennis Performance Programme bid for titles at the 2014 Championships.
Whiley and Japan’s Yui Kamiji goes into this year’s event aiming for their third successive Grand Slam doubles title after victories at the Australian Open and Roland Garros. After reaching the final in 2013 this year’s top seeds begin their latest Wimbledon challenge against Germany’s Katharina Kruger and Dutchwoman Sharon Walraven.
“It’s a good draw for me and Yui and after Melbourne and Roland Garros we have a lot of confidence and are really excited to be returning to Wimbledon as the top two ranked doubles players,” said Whiley, who also reached the final partnering Shuker in 2012 before they went on to win the women’s doubles bronze medal at the London 2012 Paralympics. “Every match at a Grand Slam is potentially tough, but hopefully we can continue our winning ways.”
Shuker will be attempting to reach her third Wimbledon final after also finishing runner-up with Australia’s Daniela di Toro in 2009 and 2010. The British No. 2 and Germany’s Sabine Ellerbrock play Dutch second seeds, two-time defending Wimbledon champions and London 2012 silver medallists Jiske Griffioen and Aniek van Koot, the partnership that Whiley and Kamiji beat in the Roland Garros final.
“I think any of the four partnerships have the chance of reaching the final this year and it’s always exciting to get the chance to play at Wimbledon in front of an enthusiastic home crowd, so I’m really look forward to playing with Sabine,” said Shuker. “We have only played together for the first time this season, but in our two tournaments we’ve reached one final and won one title, so we make a very good doubles pairing.”
In the men’s doubles event Gordon Reid and his Dutch partner Tom Egberink meet defending champions Stephane Houdet and Shingo Kunieda.
Reid, a doubles finalist at Roland Garros in 2013 and at this year’s Australian Open, bids to reach his first Wimbledon final this year as he pairs up with Egberink, one half of the winning partnership in SW19 in 2012.
Reid and Egberink open their challenge this year against top seeds Houdet and Kunieda, who they also played in their last match as a partnership, in the semi-finals of the French Open Super Series in June 2013. Houdet and Kunieda prevailed on that occasion and went on to retain that title last weekend in Paris, when Reid and another Dutch player, Maikel Scheffers were the runners-up, but Reid is confident of a good performance at Wimbledon.
“Myself and Tom are both in good form and are great friends so I'm looking forward to competing with him on the grass at SW19. I think we have a great chance to take the title if we play well and we will be trying our best to make that happen,” said Reid.
The women’s singles semi-finals take place on Friday, with the men’s doubles semi-finals on Saturday. Both finals at The Championships will be played on Sunday.
Gordon Reid bio
Lucy Shuker bio
Jordanne Whiley bio
Men’s Doubles Draw
Women's Doubles Draw
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