Warwickshire's Jordanne Whiley became the first British woman to win a Grand Slam wheelchair tennis title today when she partnered Japan's Yui Kamiji to a 6-2, 6-7(3). 6-2 victory over Dutch second seeds Marjolein Buis and Jiske Griffioen at the Australian Open in Melbourne.
Top seeds Whiley and Kamiji made a tremendous start to their second Grand Slam doubles final as last year's Wimbledon runners-up dropped just four points in the opening three games and stormed into a 5-0 lead en route to taking the opening set.
Buis and Griffioen fought back to take the second set on a tie-break, but Whiley and Kamiji broke their opponents in the first game of the deciding set en route to a 3-1 lead and they secured another break to love to extend their advantage to 4-1 before serving out the match.
After the match Jordanne was delighted with her success "It was a very close match and I was very nervous, so I'm very relieved and very, very happy to have finally won a Grand Slam," said British No. 1 and world No. 7 Whiley, who has been making her second appearance at the Australian Open after making her Grand Slam debut in Melbourne in 2011. "At the end of the second set I said to Yui we needed to keep hitting the ball, otherwise we woul lose. We are planning on playing all the Grand Slams together this year and we want to win them all."
Everyone here at Warwickshire Tennis would like to offer their congratulations to Jordanne on her recent success and for more during 2014.