Britain’s Andrew Lapthorne and Peter Norfolk were runners-up to American top seeds Nick Taylor and David Wagner on Sunday as the 22nd British Open Wheelchair Tennis Championships, a part of the NEC Wheelchair Tennis Tour, came to an end in bright sunshine at Nottingham Tennis Centre.
Second seeds Lapthorne and Norfolk, the reigning Australian Open and Doubles Masters champions, slipped to a 1-6, 6-7(4) defeat to Taylor and Wagner in the penultimate Super Series tournament of 2011, having come from 5-1 down in the second set and saved a match point at 5-2.
“They coped much better in the wind than us in the first set today and from there it was a long way back,” said Lapthorne. “We managed to make a good match of it in the second set and it needed a big effort to come back from where we were, but it wasn’t to be today.
“It’s a pity not to defend my doubles title, but we’ve both had a good week in singles and I’ll be back next year to try and win both titles,” added Lapthorne, who also reached his first British Open quad singles semi-final this week before missing out to Wagner, who Norfolk went on to beat in Saturday’s final to become British Open champion for a fifth time.
The last day of play also saw Dutch world No. 2 Maikel Scheffers retain his men’s main draw singles title after he beat first-time British Open finalist and world No. 7 Stefan Olsson of Sweden 6-3, 6-0.
Scheffers secured the first breakthrough of the match when he opened up a 4-2 lead after Olsson sent a forehand just long over the Dutchman’s baseline. Top seed Scheffers then won eight of the next nine games to wrap up his title defence.
The women’s main draw doubles final featured both of last year’s champions, Annick Sevenans of Belgium and Aniek van Koot of the Netherlands, but this year the two players were on different sides of the net and it was van Koot that managed to share in the title for the second successive year.
Van Koot partnered Saturday’s women’s singles runner-up Jiske Griffioen to victory, the all-Dutch top seeds defeating Marjolein Buis of the Netherlands and Sevenans 6-3, 6-4 to add the British Open title to the Florida Open and BNP Paribas French Open Super Series titles that had already won this season.
A matter of seconds after the conclusion of the women’s main draw doubles final, the last action of the 22nd British Open Wheelchair Tennis Championships ended with an all-British victory in a final set tie-break in the men’s second draw doubles final.
Junior Dermot Bailey paired up with the vastly experienced former Great Britain Paralympian Kevin Plowman to defeat Argentina’s Augustin Ledesma and Noah Yablong of the United States 4-6, 6-1, 7-6(3).
The presentation parties for the trophy ceremonies on the final day of the 22nd British Open included the Lord Mayor of Nottingham, Councillor Michael Wildgust and Sir Geoffrey Cass, President of the Tennis Foundation.
The 22nd British Open was contested by 110 players from 22 countries and was supported by Nottingham City Council and Highland Spring.
The Tennis Foundation, who once again organised what is one of the top five tournaments in the world outside of the Grand Slams, will bring international wheelchair tennis back to Nottingham Tennis Centre later this year, when the ITF 2 Series Nottingham Indoor takes place from 26-30 October.