Hewett and Whiley among early Masters wins
Alfie Hewett and Jordanne Whiley both beat world No. 3-ranked opponents on a thrilling first day of the 2019 NEC Wheelchair Singles Masters and UNIQLO Wheelchair Doubles Masters, while the world No. 1 and the defending champion both found their way back from a set down to survive their opening men’s singles round-robin contests in Orlando.
After missing last year’s NEC Masters, 2017 champion Hewett stretched his unbeaten run of matches at the year-end singles championship to complete a 4-6 6-4 7-6(3) victory over Houdet. Until the 2017 NEC Masters Hewett had never beaten Houdet, but claimed their must-win last round-robin match on that occasion to book his place in the semi-finals.
In Orlando it was their first round-robin match of the week that brought world No. 6 Hewett his sixth win over Houdet in eight matches after the 21-year-old Briton puled clear midway through the final set tiebreak.
Hewett said: “It was tough in the conditions out there today. I’ve not played outdoors for a while now and we both took time to find our range, but for myself to keep digging in their and keep fighting was pleasing. Even in that first set I had game points to go 5-5 after being 5-1 down. The passion was there, the fight was there and I couldn’t be more proud, really.”
While Hewett fought back from 5-1 down to almost take the first set against Houdet, reigning champion Joachim Gerard came through a roller coaster of a first match to defeat Nicolas Peifer 2-6 6-0 6-1.
But three-time NEC Masters champion Gerard ultimately never found himself in as much trouble as world No. 1 Gustavo Fernandez. The Argentinian, who is still looking for his first Masters title, faced match points against Stefan Olsson as the Swede served at 5-2 up in the second set of their opening pool contest. But after taking the second set tiebreak, Fernandez maintained the momentum to prevail 3-6 7-6(5) 6-1.
With Gerard beating Peifer, the other three-time champion in Pool B, Shingo Kunieda, also made a winning start, defeating Gordon Reid 6-4 6-3.
Whiley impresses against Van Koot
While three of the four men’s singles matches on the opening day of play at the USTA National Campus went to three sets, all four women’s singles round-robin contests ended in straight sets wins.
Whiley’s first NEC Masters since 2016 began with an impressive 6-4 6-2 victory over 2014 champion Aniek van Koot, the Briton earning her second win in two matches against world No. 3 and reigning Wimbledon champion Van Koot this season.
It was in just her second comeback tournament after maternity leave what Whiley beat Van Koot in the second round of February’s Bolton Indoor. The two players hadn’t faced each other since then until Tuesday’s contest in Orlando.
However, they have NEC Masters history, with their 2014 semifinal arguably the most memorable of their two matches at the year-end championships after Van Koot claimed a dramatic three-set win after facing match points in the second set. The Dutchwoman would go on and claim the NEC Masters title that year before winning their round-robin match in the 2016 tournament.
After a confident performance to beat Van Koot for the first time at the Masters, Whiley said:
“I’m really pleased. I’ve just come back from a six-week training block, so it’s nice to see that what I’ve been working in translating into matches, I feel like that’s the first time in a long time that I’ve actually managed to play the way I wanted to play. And Aniek is such a great player. Bolton gave me confidence, of course, but it was a long time ago now. I wonder if she didn’t know what to expect there, as I was making my comeback. But now she did know what to expect and I feel like I did really well today.”
While Van Koot will now look to get back to winning ways in her remaining Pool B matches against Yui Kamiji and Kgothatso Montjane, in Pool A there was double Dutch success as world No. 1 Diede de Groot and world No. 4 Marjolein Buis both eased to early wins. De Groot beat former NEC Masters finalist Sabine Ellerbrock 6-3 6-1, while Buis ensured that Zhenzhen Zhu’s Masters debut would end in defeat for the Chinese athlete, Buis winning 6-4, 6-3
Schroder and Vink claim early wins on NEC Masters debuts
Both of Tuesday’s quad singles round-robin matches went to the two young Dutch players making their NEC Masters debuts in Orland this week.
It has already been a memorable 2019 for Sam Schroder and Niels Vink, who have both won their first Super Series titles at the BNP Paribas Open de France and the British Open, respectively
Schroder edged ahead of Australian Heath Davidson in their career head-to-head after earning his third win in their five matches this season. The world No. 5 beat world No. 7 Davidson 6-1 7-6(4) in the day’s only Pool B match in the quad singles and will next face word No. 2 and ten-time NEC Masters champion David Wagner.
Schroder said: “It was a very good first set for me. But the second set was not so good. I was 5-2 down and one set point against me, but I’m very glad to come back and take the win. A very close winner down the lined kept me in the set and I picked up the momentum after that and started to play better. I think getting used to the court and getting used to the wind, especially, helped me in the second set.
While Schroder plays Wagner next, 16-year-old-year-old Vink will face top seed Andy Lapthorne after beating Japan’s world No. 4 Koji Sugeno 4-6 6-1 6-4 to level his career head-to-head with Sugeno at two wins apiece.
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.