Reid, Burdekin and van Koot win USN Bolton Arena titles
22nd February 2014
British players claimed five out of the singles main draw singles and doubles titles at the USN Bolton Arena Indoor Wheelchair Tennis Tournament after Gordon Reid and Jamie Burdekin won the men’s singles and quad singles finals today with Dutch top seed Aniek van Koot beating Britain’s Lucy Shuker in the women’s singles final.
As the second international wheelchair tennis tournament in successive weeks supported by the Tennis Foundation and sponsored by TBS Sports came to an end, Reid and Burdekin completed the ITF 2 Series event with singles and doubles titles, while Shuker partnered Jordanne Whiley to win the women’s doubles on Friday’s penultimate day of play.
World No. 3 and top seed Reid won the first three games and the last three games of the opening set of his all-British men’s singles final against 16-year-old third seed Alfie Hewett. Reid then dropped just the second game of the second set as he closed out a 6-2, 6-1 victory to repeat his win over world No. 1 junior Hewett in the final of the ITF 2 Series North East Tournament in Sunderland in 2013.
“I’m delighted to win today, it was a high quality match and Alfie is an up and coming player and improving all the time,” said Reid. “I tried out a few different things this week and some worked and some didn’t, but I played well at the right times, so it’s a good way to go enter a training block ahead of going to the USA next month.”
Burdekin claimed back-to-back quad singles titles as he followed up his victory at the North West Challenge last week with a 6-2, 6-0 win over fellow Brit Adam Field. Field made a bright start after reaching the final following a victory over Italian fourth seed earlier in the week, but Burdekin came from 2-0 down and won 12 games in a row to complete victory.
“I’m very happy to win both titles in the North West,” said Burdekin, who moved up one place to No. 7 in the quad singles world rankings earlier this week after his North West Challenge victory. “It was a bit of a slow start for me today, but I’m really pleased to reel off the last 12 games and it’s onwards and upwards from here.”
Third seed Shuker came from behind in the first set of the women’s singles final to lead van Koot 5-4. However, the Dutch world No. 4 won the last five points of the first set tie-break and the last four games of the second set to complete a 7-6(2), 6-3 win in her first tournament since winning September’s US Open Grand Slam.
Top seeds Hewett and Reid powered into the men’s doubles final for the loss of just one game, while second seeds Marc McCarroll and Sweden’s Stefan Olsson dropped just three games across their two matches to also reach the final. However, a shoulder injury meant that Olsson was unable to play the final, handing a walkover to Hewett and Reid.
London 2012 bronze medallists Shuker and Whiley beat third seeds Louise Hunt and Lauren Jones 6-1, 6-1 in their all-British women’s doubles semi-final, but German second seeds Kruger and Bianca Osterer were unable to play the final, giving top seeds Shuker and Whiley another title to add to their list of successes.
Burdekin claimed his second USN Bolton Arena Indoor title in the quad doubles as he partnered Ryan Macdonald to a 6-0, 6-0 win over Richard Green and Ian Payne in the last all-British final of the tournament.