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Year ends on a high for young British hopefuls
Paul Carter
Two of Great Britain’s hottest prospects in wheelchair tennis ended
2010 in style as they both lifted trophies in the last tournament of
the year to have British interest.
In the men’s competition, British number two Gordon Reid secured his third win of the season against a world top-10-ranked opponent to win the men’s singles final at the ITF 3 Series Prague Cup Czech Indoor.
Second seed Reid beat Austrian world No 9 and top seed Martin Legner 7-5, 6-3 to add to his two previous tournament wins. In September he defeated the world No 8 and world No 10 in successive weeks to win back-to-back ITF 2 Series titles.
“It was a really good week, I’m very happy with how I played, especially after such a nightmare of a journey,” said the 19-year-old Scot, who arrived in Prague on Wednesday, almost 24 hours later than planned due to delays caused by the wintry weather across Britain.
“It was a really good way to end the year and now I’m looking forward to a bit of time off and then getting back into training in the New Year,” he said.
Reid is now likely to earn an improvement in his current men’s singles world ranking of number 14, having started 2010 world ranked number 17.
His win ends a successful tournament, coming on top of his being runner-up in the men’s doubles.
In the women’s competition, Jordanne Whiley won her fourth doubles title on the 2010 NEC Wheelchair Tennis Tour as she brought the curtain down on her season by partnering Dutchwoman Aniek van Koot to retain their women’s doubles title.
Earlier in the day, Whiley had finished runner-up to top seed van Koot in the women’s singles final for the second successive year.
British No 2 Whiley and van Koot justified their top seeding for the women’s doubles, completing the tournament without dropping a set as they beat German second seeds Katharina Kruger and Bianca Osterer 7-5, 6-2. Meanwhile, after securing a first career singles win over van Koot in the final of October’s Nottingham Indoor, 18-year-old world No 10 Whiley made a fine attempt at recording back-to-back victories over the world No 5, but was eventually edged out 6-7(4), 4-6.