Gerard and Olsson roll on in Orlando
Joachim Gerard and Stefan Olsson beat reigning UNIQLO Wheelchair Doubles Masters champions Stephane Houdet and Nicolas Peifer on Thursday’s second day of this year’s event at the USTA National Campus at Lake Nona, Orlando, where the reigning quad doubles champions saw their title defence come to an end during another enthralling day’s action.
The Belgian-Swedish combination, the reigning Australian Open and Wimbledon champions, beat the French top seeds 5-7 6-2 6-3 to book their place in this year’s men’s semifinals, while the other Pool A contest ended in a walkover.
“It’s always good to win against this team. They’re so strong and so you have to make sure you win almost every point. We were a little bit slow today in the first set, but then we woke up and played some of our best tennis this year,” said Olsson.
Young USA duo Chris Herman and Conner Stroud, brought into the field of eight partnerships at short notice to replace the Japanese partnership of Shingo Kunieda and Takashi Sanada, were awarded a walkover against Argentinian duo Gustavo Fernandez and Agustin Ledesma after the Parapan American Games gold medallists had to withdraw from their second pool match on medical grounds.
Poo B saw 2017 champions Alfie Hewett and Gordon Reid make it two wins from two matches after the reigning US Open champions defeated Dutch partnership Tom Egberink and Maikel Scheffers 4-6 7-5 6-3. Hewett and Reid face Ruben Spaargaren and Jef Vandorpe in their final round-robin match on Friday, with Reid hoping to avoid a repeat of his round-robin match partnering Fernandez against Spaargaren and Vandorpe in 2018, when the young Dutch-Belgian partnership upset Reid and Fernandez.
Spaargaren and Vandorpe completed a spectacular final set performance against Spain’s Daniel Caverzaschi and Martin de la Puente to register their first win of the week, prevailing 6-4 3-6 6-0. The semifinal line-ups will be decided on Friday’s third day of doubles competition in Orlando.
Defending champions bow out of quad doubles contention
Davidson and Vink inflicted a second loss of the week on 11-time UNIQLO Wheelchair Doubles Masters quad champions Nick Taylor and David Wagner to end Taylor and Wagner’s hopes of a 12th title.
Playing in only their second tournament together, Davidson and Vink took a 4-1 final set lead over Taylor and Wagner, only to see that advantage cut to 4-3. However, Taylor and Wagner were unable to get back on level terms and Davidson and Vink wrapped up a 6-3 3-6 6-3 victory.
“We had a tough one yesterday against Koji (Sugeno) and (Kyu-Seung) Kim, but today we managed to work it out. So we’re pretty happy with that and it means we now have a rubber for a place in the final, so it’s really exciting,” said Davidson.
“In St. Louis we got a bit too defensive and it’s just about learning each other’s games. I’ve just got to trust him to cover me and vice versa and if we play aggressive we’re a pretty decent doubles team.”
With just September’s US Open USTA Wheelchair Championships under their belt as a partnership before arriving in Orlando, Vink agreed that they have come a long way in a short space of time.
“I feel so happy. It was a long match with long rallies, but we played good,” said Vink. “In St. Louis we played a lot on two bounces and were driving backwards and now we attacked the ball and played more on one bounce and talked to each other. When someone is doing something wrong we need to tell each other.”
Kim and Sugeno booked their place in the quad doubles final after a spectacular comeback from winning just one game in their opening set against the first-time partnership of Andy Lapthorne and Sam Schroder.
The Korean-Japanese duo snatched the second set on a tiebreak after a series of unforced errors from their opponents ended their hopes of a straight sets win. Thereafter, Kim and Sugeno grew in confidence to wrap up their 1-6 7-6(3) 6-3 victory. It’s a result that means that Lapthorne and Schroder face Davidson and Vink on Saturday to decide who joins Kim and Sugeno in the final.
De Groot and Van Koot continue winning ways
Calendar-year Grand Slam-winning partnership Diede de Groot and Aniek van Koot opened their bid to add another major title to their collection with a 6-0 6-4 victory over the French-Chinese partnership of Charlotte Famin and Zhenzhen Zhu.
The Dutch top seeds face British duo Lucy Shuker and Jordanne Whiley on Friday to decide who finishes top of Pool A and therefore progresses to which of the two semifinals.
De Groot and Van Koot have lost only two matches so far this season and one of those was to Marjolein Buis and Dana Mathewson in the final of the Japan Open Super Series.
Buis and Mathewson began their UNIQLO Wheelchair Doubles Masters campaign by also dropping just four games as they eased past South American duo Angelica Bernal and Maria Florencia Moreno 6-1 6-3.
Buis and Mathewson take on Katharina Kruger and Kgothatso Montjane in the second of their two round-robin matches to decide semifinal line-ups.
LIVE STREAMING OF THE 2019 NEC WHEELCHAIR SINGLES MASTERS AND UNIQLO WHEELCHAIR DOUBLES MASTERS WILL BE AVAILABLE EACH DAY VIA THE ITF WHEELCHAIR TENNIS WEBSITE.