Photo: Steve Wake / Professional SportBryan Barten (USA)
LONDON, GREAT BRITAIN: The women’s singles and quad singles quarterfinals feature on Tuesday’s fourth day of play at the London 2012 Paralympic Tennis Event, along with the women’s doubles quarterfinals and the third round of men’s singles matches to decide the quarterfinalists.
After beating world No. 6 and former bronze medallist Daniela di Toro of Australia in the second round of the women’s singles, Thailand’s Sakhorn Khanthasit has the task of playing world No. 1 Esther Vergeer of the Netherlands in the last eight of the women’s singles.
World No. 1 ranked junior Yui Kamiji of Japan will face women’s senior world No. 2 Aniek van Koot in one of the other quarterfinals as both players look to progress in their first Paralympic Games.
Meanwhile, two more Paralympic debutants will also go head-to-head as new world No. 3 and fourth seed Sabine Ellerbrock of Germany takes on another Dutch quarterfinalist, world No. 5 Marjolein Buis.
London 2012 is the third Paralympic Games for Dutchwoman Jiske Griffioen and Griffioen will face eighth seed Lucy Shuker, Great Britain’s last remaining hope in the women’s singles and a player that has a win over Griffioen on her record.
In the quad singles quarterfinals, two-time gold medallist Peter Norfolk is guaranteed another enthusiastic home crowd as he plays a fellow former world No. 1 in Israel’s Shraga Weinberg.
World No. 1 David Wagner of USA plays another of the Israel quarterfinalists, Boaz Kramer, while world No. 2 Noam Gershony plays Barten another match between Israeli and American players.
With USA joining Israel in having three quarterfinalists, Nick Taylor will bid to reach his third successive Paralympic Games semifinal when he takes on Sweden’s Anders Hard.
With the men’s singles draw having started out with 16 seeded players and 14 seeds left in, the third round will see unseeded Briton David Phillipson take on Beijing gold medallist and world No. 2 Shingo Kunieda of Japan.
The other unseeded player to have reached the last 16 is Australia’s Adam Kellerman, who meets Dutch world No. 4 Ronald Vink, while Dutch world No. 3 and Beijing bronze medallist Maikel Scheffers takes on French No. 16 seed Frederic Cattaneo.
Arguably the most enticing of the day’s men’s matches based on ranking is that between sixth seed Stefan Olsson of Sweden and ninth seed Gordon Reid of Great Britain, with Reid having beaten the higher ranked Olsson in his last tournament before the London 2012 Paralympics, July’s British Open.
After winning the longest match of the London 2012 Paralympic Tennis event so far, a three hour and two minute long contest on the second day of play, Parapan American Games silver medallists Angelica Bernal and Johana Martinez of Colombia have the toughest of the women’s doubles quarterfinal draws against Dutch top seeds Buis and Vergeer.
The other Dutch partnership, second seeds and Wimbledon and British Open champions Griffioen and van Koot, face Korea’s Myung-Hee Hwang and Ju-Youn Park.
Athens silver medallists Sakhorn Khanthasit and Ratana Techamaneewat are likely to prove tough quarterfinal opponents for Japanese fourth seeds Kanako Domori and Yi Kamiji.
Follow the scores from the Paralympic Tennis Event on the Schedule page.