For the second time in two months Bingham’s David Phillipson has regained the British No. 2 men’s singles wheelchair tennis ranking after reaching the semi-finals of last week’s Slovakia Open in Trnava, where he was also a finalist in the men’s doubles.
Phillipson has moved up two places in this week’s rankings to No. 19, moving just once place ahead of Middlesex’s Marc McCarroll after having last overtaken McCarroll after the Israel Open at the end of May.
The two-time Paralympian dropped just six games in two straight sets wins over the Czech Republic’s Dalibor Potucek and Steffen Sommerfeld of Germany in Trnava before bowing out to Austrian second seed and eventual runner-up Martin Legner 6-1, 6-1.
Phillipson has now reached the men’s singles semi-finals of two clay court tournaments in Central Europe in three weeks, having started the month by progressing to the last four of the Polish Open before a 6-3, 6-3 loss to eventual champion Frederic Cattaneo of France.
Phillipson also reached the men’s doubles semi-finals in Poland, partnering McCarroll, but last week he went a stage further as he paired up with Poland’s Tadeusz Kruszelnicki to reach the men’s doubles final. Phillipson and Kruszelnicki finished runners-up to top seeds Cattaneo and Legner.
“It’s been a tough month. I wasn’t seeded to reach either singles final, but obviously that’s what I was hoping for,” said Phillipson. “In Poland I came up against Cattaneo, who went on to win both the Polish Open and Slovakia Open titles, beating Legner in both finals, and it was a close match against Cattaneo. In Slovakia last week hay fever was affecting me and it’s also a case of finding my rhythm on clay at the moment. But it’s encouraging to see my ranking going in the right direction again and to be back in the world’s top 20.”
Phillipson will have another chance on the clay courts in two weeks when he plays another ITF 2 Series tournament in Zagreb, Croatia. After that he will hope to excel on home soil in front of a local crowd at the 24th British Open at Nottingham Tennis Centre. The fifth Super Series event of the year on the NEC Wheelchair Tennis Tour takes place from 16 to 21 July, organised by the Tennis Foundation, who run Phillipson’s Performance Programme.
But before then the Bingham 24-year-old and McCarroll get the chance to showcase wheelchair tennis in Cheshire at the end of this week when they play in an exhibition at the Boodles Classique near Knutsford.