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Macclesfield’s Antony Cotterill goes into this week’s ITF Wheelchair Doubles Masters on the crest of a wave after reaching his first ITF 1 Series quad singles final and winning his first ITF 1 Series quad doubles final in Nottingham.
Cotterill has already had a landmark year on the NEC Wheelchair Tennis Tour, reaching career best singles and doubles rankings of No. 5 and No. 8 respectively in July. The 33-year-old partnered fellow Brit Adam Field to another personal best in Nottingham as they justified top seeding to win the quad doubles before pairing up this week for the year-end championship for the world’s top ranked doubles players in Mission Viejo, California.
After a first round bye, Cotterill and Field bounced back from dropping the opening set of their semi-final to Italy’s Alfredo di Cosmo and Antonio Raffaele to prevail 5-7, 6-3, 6-3 victory. They came from behind again to dominate the final set of the all-British final against Richard Green and Andy Lapthorne for a 5-7, 6-3, 6-0 victory that earned them their 12th doubles titles together since 2007, including nine in the last two seasons.
“We didn’t make it easy for ourselves, but we played two talented partnerships and have to be pleased with how we pulled through, especially in the final to finish off the way we did,” said Cotterill, who will now make his Doubles Masters debut when this week’s prestigious tournament starts on Thursday. “To win our first ITF 1 Series doubles title after a string of ITF 2 Series wins is a big boost heading to Mission Viejo and me and Adam are really excited to be playing on such a stage.”
Cotterill and Field will be among eight Brits on the Tennis Foundation’s Wheelchair Tennis Performance Programme contesting the Doubles Masters and will be the only British duo in the elite field of four partnerships for the quad doubles.
Regardless of their result this week, Cotterill can look forward to finishing 2013 with his first year-end top 10 singles ranking, having finished 2012 world ranked No. 11.
After reaching two previous ITF 1 Series semi-finals this season, he cemented his current world No. 8 ranking in dramatic fashion in Nottingham, coming from 5-3 down in the final set of his semi-final against world No. 9 Raffaele to clinch a 4-6, 6-2, 7-6(3) victory. Second seed Cotterill subsequently saw his bid for a first ITF 1 singles title come to an end against fellow Brit and defending champion Andy Lapthorne as world No. 3 Lapthorne retained the Nottingham Indoor crown 6-2, 6-1.