A host of Grand Slam champions are among 26 world top 10 ranked players set to play for major honours when the 26th British Open Wheelchair Tennis Championships takes place at Nottingham Tennis Centre from 14 – 19 July.
With the British Open starting just two days after the end of the wheelchair tennis doubles event at Wimbledon, 15 of the 16 players who were among the entries at SW19 are set to be in Nottingham, including Britain’s two-time Wimbledon champion Jordanne Whiley and 2015 finalist Godon Reid..
Reid, who won his first Grand Slam title at Roland Garros with Japan’s Shingo Kunieda in the men’s doubles, reached his second British Open final in 2014 after beating French world No. 2 Stephane Houdet in the semi-finals. Houdet and world No.3 Reid are set to be the top two seeds in Nottingham this year in a men’s field that features nine of the world’s top ten.
“I’ve had some of the best results of my career at the British Open and with the qualification window for Rio 2016 now open, it’s a very important year,” said Reid. “I’ve had a fantastic season so far and after reaching two British Open finals previously I’ll be aiming to go one better this year.”
Local Nottinghamshire interest will come from Bingham’s David Phillipson, who has also had a memorable couple of months after joining Reid, Alfie Hewett and Marc McCarroll in the Great Britain team that gained an historic first men’s gold medal at the World Team Cup in Turkey in May.
Whiley and Japan’s Yui Kamiji, who retained their Wimbledon women’s doubles crown on Sunday, are also heading to the East Midlands. Kamiji is the defending British Open women’s singles champion, but Dutchwoman Jiske Griffioen’s since overtaken Kamiji at the top of the rankings after winning the first two Grand Slam titles of 2015. Griffioen, Kamiji, Whiley and her fellow GB bronze medal-winning partner Lucy Shuker are all among nine of the world’s top 10 women en route to Nottingham, along with Germany’s 2013 British Open champion Sabine Ellerbrock.
“It’s always special to play on home soil and I’m really excited to be coming back to the British Open as we continue on the road to the Rio 2016 Paralympics. I hope that people who’ve seen us on TV at Wimbledon will come out and support us in Nottingham,” said world No.6 Whiley, who became the first British tennis player to complete a calendar year Grand Slam in 2014 when she and Kamiji won all four Grand Slam women’s doubles titles.
Heading the entry for the quad division, for those with a more severe disability, will be world No.1 and defending British Open champion Dylan Alcott of Australia, Britain’s world No.3 Andy Lapthorne, the 2014 runner-up and the USA’s world No.2 David Wagner, a two–time British Open champion.
World No.4 Lucas Sithole of South Africa, the 2013 British Open champion, and Britain’s world No.5 Jamie Burdekin, who partnered Wagner to win the quad doubles in 2014, are also part of a high class field that features eight of the world’s top 10 ranked players. Five-time British Open quad singles champion Peter Norfolk is also among this year’s entries, along with local Nottinghamshire player James Shaw of Ruddington, who joined the Tennis Foundation’s Wheelchair Tennis Performance Programme in 2014.
The British Open is one of six events to have Super Series status, the highest tier of tournament on the UNIQLO Wheelchair Tennis Tour outside of the Grand Slams and is the first Super Series event to come within the ranking qualification window for the Rio 2016 Paralympics.
Organised by the Tennis Foundation, the British Open is a crucial tournament for the world’s leading men’s, women’s and quad players aiming to qualify for the Rio 2016 Paralympics and also bidding to gain enough ranking points to qualify for the NEC Wheelchair Tennis Masters, the year-end singles championship, which takes places at Lee Valley Hockey and Tennis Centre in Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, on 25 – 29 November.
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