Top seeds Gordon Reid and Jiske Griffioen defended their men’s and women’s singles titles in ruthless fashion at the Nottingham Indoor Wheelchair Tennis Tournament on Sunday.
Britain’s Reid, 23, made light work of Sweden’s former world No. 2 Olsson, clinching the decider 6-0, 6-1 to add to his 2011 and 2013 title successes.
World No.2 Griffioen of the Netherlands overcame British No. 1 Jordanne Whiley 6-0, 6-4 to clinch her third successive and fourth overall Nottingham Indoor women’s crown.
For Reid and Griffioen, victory at Nottingham Tennis Centre came as a glorious way to warm-up for the year-end NEC Wheelchair Tennis Masters, which starts on Wednesday at Lee Valley Hockey and Tennis Centre in Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, London.
“I’m really pleased with the way I played - that is exactly the way I want to play next week,” said world No. 3 Reid.
“I just hope I haven’t peaked a little bit too soon.
“The way I played there doesn’t surprise me because I do it consistently in training.
“The hardest thing about tennis is putting what you do in practice into match play situations – I did it perfectly today.
“I have convinced myself that I can do it in matches in a pressure situation because that was a final match against a player in really good form.”
British No. 1 Reid missed out on clinching the doubles title on his return to the court just hours later, as he and France’s Michael Jeremiasz were beaten 6-4, 6-3 by top seeds Joachim Gerard of Belgium and Nicolas Peifer of France.
Meanwhile, Griffioen was pleased to warm-up for her return to Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, where she won her first individual Paralympic medal at London 2012, by continuing her three-year winning run at the Nottingham Indoors.
“We worked on some things that I will definitely use next week at the Masters and I feel good, so I’m ready for it,” she said.
Calendar-year Grand Slam winner Whiley, who teamed up to with fellow Brit Lucy Shuker to win Saturday’s women’s doubles final, admits she struggled to recover from a slow start.
“I did well in the second set and brought it back a little bit, but I couldn’t find my rhythm today,” said world No. 6 Whiley, who will go to the NEC Masters bidding to progress beyond the round-robin phase of the competition for the second successive year. She became the first Brit to reach the women’s singles semi-finals at the prestigious event in 2013.
Organised by the Tennis Foundation, the Nottingham Indoor is an ITF 1 Series event on the UNIQLO Wheelchair Tennis Tour and is held at Nottingham Tennis Centre. The tournament was supported by Nottingham City Council. For more information please visit www.nottinghamindoor.org.uk/.
Tickets for the NEC Wheelchair Tennis Masters start at just £10, with children going free, and can be purchased via the tournament website: http://www.wheelchairtennismasters.com/.