Jordanne Whiley left Halesowen for the last time this year earlier this week as she bids to end her season on the NEC Wheelchair Tennis Tour with success in the Czech Republic.
Whiley finished as a runner-up on Sunday in the Camozzi Doubles Masters, the season-end championship for the world's leading doubles players and after less than a day at home she set out for the ITF 3 Series Prague Cup Czech Indoor, a tournament where she was runner-up to Dutchwoman Aniek van Koot in 2009.
Whiley started the week with career best women's singles and doubles world rankings of No 10 after jumping up two places in the doubles rankings following her success at the Doubles Masters in Palazzolo, Italy.
The Black Country star partnered fellow Briton Lucy Shuker in her second attempt at the prestigious tournament and the duo opened their challenge with a comfortable 6-2, 6-2 win over Japan's Kanako Domori and Yuko Okabe. Thereafter the tournament became tougher, but Whiley and Shuker threatened to derail top seeds van Koot and Sharon Walraven in the second of their three round-robin matches, winning the second set of the Anglo-Dutch contest without dropping a game before van Koot and Walraven prevailed 6-3, 0-6, 7-5.
However, a 6-2, 3-6, 6-4 victory over Marjolein Buis of the Netherlands and Germany's Sabine Ellerbrock guaranteed the British duo second place in the pool phase of the tournament and another crack at van Koot and Walraven in Sunday's final, but despite going 5-4 up in the first set, Whiley and Shuker eventually slipped to a 5-7, 3-6 loss. Nevertheless, it was still an improvement for Whiley on her debut in 2009, when she finished fourth of the four teams when partnering Buis.
"Our round-robin pool contest against Aniek and Sharon was a great match, although we lost, but it was not our day today, we didn't play that great. However, we're happy we got to the final and it's done my ranking good," said Whiley, who first attained a world top 10 doubles ranking in May 2009.
Whiley could now face van Koot again this week as they are the top two seeds in the women's singles and therefore scheduled to meet in the final. However, they are among six world top 20 players in Prague in a strong draw. After Prague, Whiley then returns to training at David Lloyd in Brierley Hill before starting 2011 with tournaments in Australia.
The 18-year-old is already guaranteed to end her last year as an eligible junior player with the world No 1 junior ranking for the second season in succession.