Quadfather in for kill down-under

Paul Carter

Britain’s Peter Norfolk continued his outstanding record at grand-slam tournaments, by clinching his fourth Australian Open quad singles title at Melbourne Park.

Norfolk, nicknamed “The Quadfather”, produced a highly polished performance to defeat American rival and world number two David Wagner 6-2, 7-6(4).

As well as retaining his world number one ranking, Norfolk’s victory takes his tally of wheelchair tennis majors to 17, while he has now won 41 career singles titles since 2001.

Norfolk took the American to deuce in three of Wagner’s four service games and the Hampshire player converted his first set point for his third break of the opening set.

With the prospect of losing a second set to Wagner for the second time in three days, Norfolk’s ability to perform under pressure then came to the fore and he started to play more relaxed tennis and subsequently came back to force a tie-break, going on to win his third successive Australian Open title and his fourth since 2004 after an hour and 36 minutes of play.

There was to be no double victory for Norfolk however, as he and Swedish partner Johann Andersson lost out in the quad doubles final to Wagner and fellow American Nick Taylor.

With Venus Williams watching the match from the Melbourne stands, the American top seeds took the match 6-2, 7-6(5).

In the women’s singles competition, fellow Briton Lucy Shuker put up a determined effort in her opening match, but eventually lost out to French world No 3 Florence Gravellier in three sets, going down 6-3, 2-6, 6-4.

For those interested in receiving expert coaching and guidance in wheelchair tennis, the Tennis Foundation is now inviting applicants for a series of one day and two day wheelchair tennis camps that will take place across Britain in 2010.

To find out more about the dates and locations, you can download an application form from the Tennis Foundation website at www.tennisfoundation.org.uk/disabilitytennis/wheelchairtennis/