Four more British players booked their places in the quarter finals of the British Open Wheelchair Tennis Championships with wins for Jordanne Whiley, Gordon Reid, Andy Lapthorne and Lucy Shuker on the second day of play at Nottingham Tennis Centre.
The match of the day saw Andy Lapthorne facing his London 2012 silver medal-winning quad doubles partner Pete Norfolk, who was playing his second competitive match in two years. Lapthorne recovered from a slow start to eventually prevail 2-6, 6-4, 7-6(5). The World No.3 joins 2012 finalist Jamie Burdekin and Antony Cotterill in the last eight of the quad singles.
“I didn’t play well, I was just trying to get the ball back and find a way to win,” said Lapthorne, who now faces Japanese seventh seed Mitsuteru Moroishi for a place in the semi-finals.
On facing former doubles partner Norfolk, Lapthorne said: “It was weird to play Pete; he hasn’t played in a while and with him being my doubles partner at London 2012. I’m pleased to get my first win against Pete in singles, but I made it hard for myself. I’ve got an opportunity now in the next match to fix it and play how I know I can.”
With all the seeded players remaining in contention in the singles events, Brits Whiley and Shuker booked their places in the quarter-finals of the women’s singles with straight sets wins. Whiley defeated Michaela Spaanstra 7-5, 6-2 whilst Shuker beat Chile’s Maria Diaz 6-1, 6-0.
“It wasn’t the greatest match I’ve ever played but I got through it in two sets,” said Whiley, playing her first match after defending her Wimbledon doubles crown.
“I’m a bit tired after being on the grass all week at Wimbledon and coming back onto a different surface takes a little bit of adjustment. It’s hard coming back down to reality after Wimbledon and all the celebrations after winning the doubles but I’m pleased that I got through it,” she added.
World No.7 Shuker now faces world No.2 Yui Kamiji in the quarter-finals. “My ranking has come back up to where I should be and I compete with most of the top girls,” said Shuker.
“I feel confident, I’ve done the training and now it is just about playing well. You have to take your game to the court on big match days.”
World No.3 Reid began his bid for a first British Open men’s title with an imperious performance that saw him beat Australia’s Adam Kellerman 6-0, 6-0. The two-time runner-up now has a quarter-final against Argentina’s word No.6 Gustavo Fernandez of Argentina.
“I felt excellent and take a lot of confidence out of a match like that because Adam is a good player and I expected a tough match,” Reid said afterwards.
“I felt I was hitting the ball really clean and moving well. My mind was really clear and that is the way I need to play all the time. If I can keep doing that for the rest of the week things are looking good.”
However, Marc McCarroll and Dave Phillipson bowed out in the second round with McCarroll losing 6-1, 7-5 to Takashi Sanada and Phillipson going down 6-4, 6-4 to Tom Egberink. However McCarroll and Phillipson still have a chance of glory tomorrow when they take on fellow Brits Gordon Reid and Alfie Hewett in the quarter-finals of the men’s doubles.
