Double Dutch at Wimbledon

By Paul Carter

Dutch duo Korie Homan and Esther Vergeer made history at the All England Tennis Club, winning the inaugural women’s wheelchair doubles title at the Wimbledon Championships.

The top seeds saw off British tennis star Lucy Shuker and her partner, Australian Daniela di Toro
6-1, 6-3, ending Shuker’s hopes of becoming the second Briton after Jayant Mistry to win a Wimbledon wheelchair doubles title.

Speaking ahead of the Wimbledon final, Shuker said: “Ever since I started playing wheelchair tennis in 2003 it’s been a dream to play at Wimbledon, so now that I’m here we were determined to make the most of it.

“For us to reach our first Grand Slam final together is fantastic. We’ll go away now and talk to our
coaches and try to come up with a plan to try and beat Korie and Esther in Sunday’s final. It’s obviously going to be tough, but we will do our best and will enjoy it.”

However, after winning their semi-final 6-0, 6-0, Homan and Vergeer always looked the favourites to claim the inaugural title, and went on to make it seven successive tournaments without losing a single set.

“We knew it was going to be tough, they are the world’s top ranked players, but we did our best out there and took it to them in the second set, but they were just too good,” said Shuker.

“There is some disappointment, but to get to the final was a great achievement and to play at Wimbledon for the first time has been incredible.

“I look forward to hopefully having another chance again next year”.

“It’s amazing to win this,” said Vergeer. “I watched Wimbledon at home all my life and just to be here in the grounds the other day gave me goose bumps, so to get playing was a great feeling. Of course you think about winning, but to actually do it is another thing and to win the inaugural Wimbledon Women’s Wheelchair Doubles title is another great thing I can add to my list,” she said.

The top seeds also prevailed in the men’s wheelchair doubles, with French duo Stephane Houdet and Michael Jeremiasz seeing off Robin Ammerlaan of the Netherlands and Shingo Kunieda of Japan with a
1-6, 6-4, 7-6 victory in a nail-biting final.

Homan and Vergeer and Houdet and Jeremiasz now go on to lead the Dutch women’s and French men’s teams in the 25th Anniversary World Team Cup, the Davis and Fed Cups of wheelchair tennis, at the City of Nottingham Tennis Centre from 27 July to 2 August.

Meanwhile, two-time Paralympic champion Peter Norfolk heads a Great Britain squad of 13 players that will contest each of the men’s, women’s, quad and junior events.

Norfolk, his Beijing quad doubles bronze medal-winning partner Jamie Burdekin and Andrew Lapthorne will start among the favourites to try and earn Great Britain a third Invacare World Team Cup quad title since 2001.