Reid, Van Koot and Barten claim Loughborough Indoor honours
Gordon Reid prevented a clean sweep of singles victories for the top seeds at the inaugural Loughborough Indoor wheelchair tennis tournament.
The event heralded the return of the UNIQLO Wheelchair Tennis Tour to British shores, with Aniek van Koot claiming the women’s singles title and quad singles champion Bryan Barten joining Reid and Van Koot in ending the ITF 2 event with both singles and doubles honours.
The first weekend of March saw Reid face fellow Brit Alfie Hewett in the men’s singles final at the ABN AMRO World Wheelchair Tennis Tournament in Rotterdam. The last weekend of the month brought a familiar match-up, but world No. 5 and second seed Reid crucially turned the tables on world No. 3, Hewett as the Rio Paralympic finalists went head-to-head again.
While Reid advanced to the final with three three-set wins, things were not so straightforward for Hewett, who admitted to having thought his quarter-final was over when he led seventh seed Ruben Spaargaren by a set and 5-1.
However, Spaargaren exposed his opponent’s lapse in focus to turn the second set around and Hewett needed to regroup to wrap up his 6-3 6-7(7) 6-1 win before racing past semi-final opponent Takuya Miki 6-0 6-0.
The UNIQLO Wheelchair Tennis Tour’s only previous visit to Loughborough was for the 2017 NEC Wheelchair Singles Masters, where Hewett and Reid contested another all-British final and Hewett became the youngest ever winner of the men’s title at the year-end championship.
However, their latest meeting saw that outcome and that of their more recent Rotterdam final reversed as Reid battled back from a set and 5-3 down to prevail 2-6 7-5 6-4.
“I think last year was the first year in my career when I didn’t win a singles title. Obviously, we didn’t play many events, so I’m really pleased to take the title home today," said Reid. "I’ve played some really good tennis this week and I thought the final was a really high level today. I had to play some of my tennis to beat Alfie.
“I had to take a few risks and try to get on the front foot early in the points and take Alfie’s time away from him. When he’s in control and has time then he’s really dangerous, so I had to do what I could to put him under pressure. I thought I did that well from the end of the second set,” added Reid. who later partnered Hewett to win their third successive doubles title of 2021.
Van Koot justifies top seeding to win women's singles
While Reid’s victory over Hewett brought the reigning Paralympic champion his first singles title since the 2019 French Riviera Open, Aniek’s van Koot’s victory at Wimbledon 2019 was the Dutch world No.3’s last singles title before arriving in Loughborough.
With the Loughborough tournament organised in the wake of the cancellation of the Wrexham Indoor and Bolton Indoor tournaments traditionally held in February, Van Koot secured another first on British soil, having won the very first Bolton Indoor in 2014 before reclaiming that title in 2018.
Since then, Jordanne Whiley had become the most successful women’s singles champion in Bolton, claiming the ITF 2 title for the third time in February 2020, a month before ITF tours were suspended due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Whiley’s hopes of emerging victorious in Loughborough were boosted by her recovery from 5-2 down in the second set of her quarter-final against Rio Paralympic champion Jiske Griffioen. However, the world No. 4’s fortunes turned quite abruptly in her semi-final.
With Whiley having led Dana Mathewson by a set and 4-1, Mathewson battled back for a 2-6 6-4 7-5 victory and her first career win over Whiley in five attempts. However, a maiden win over Van Koot proved to be beyond the USA third seed as Van Koot stretched her unbeaten sequence against Mathewson to 11 matches with a 6-3 6-2 win in the final.
“It’s a huge joy to be able to play a tournament and to meet everyone again. I think Kirsty (Thomson, Tournament Director) and the LTA team deserve a medal," said Van Koot. "There were some really strong competitors and I think it really helped me to have played in Australia.
"I developed a game plan for myself and a mindset in Australia. I’m not going to reveal what that is, but it’s something that makes me happier as a player and as a person. I have so much admiration for other players and it was a delight to see how well other players, such as Cornelia Oosthuizen (second round opponent) were playing,” added Van Koot, who also partnered Jiske Griffioen to win the women's doubles final as the reigning Paralympic champions beat Rio bronze medallists Lucy Shuker and Whiley.
Barten claims quad singles honours
On the face of it, Bryan Barten’s quad singles victory in Loughborough brought few surprises as the world No. 12 justified top-seeding, but behind Barten's win is a reflection of how the pandemic has enabled some players to move their performances to a new level.
In a busy early season schedule in 2020, Barten reached three successive finals in his native USA, including at the Arizona Open, where he shared tournament director duties.
The last completed tournament in early March 2020 before the suspension of the UNIQLO Wheelchair Tennis Tour due to the pandemic, the Arizona Open saw Barten edge James Shaw before racing past Antony Cotterill 6-0 6-0 in his opening match at the subsequently suspended Georgia Open.
Barten faced both Brits in Loughborough, as Shaw took his first set off Barten in five meetings before the top seed won their semi-final 2-6 6-0 6-2. Barten then defeated Cotterill 4-6 6-0 7-5 in the final as the two players went to a third and deciding set for the fifth time in 14 career meetings.
“I was excited for this one and I’m extremely happy to come away with the title," said world No.12 Barten. "I trained very hard during the year off, but what became apparent to me was is that everyone has been training hard. In my matches against James Shaw and Antony Cotterill, both of those guys played the best tennis that I’ve ever see them play.
“The time our was kind of a blessing in disguise for me. I’d been battling a neck injury for the last two years that I never really properly had the time to rehab, so I spent the period off during the pandemic really strengthening my body and rehabbing this nagging injury and I feel like my game has really jumped up several levels,” added Barten, who partnered Israel's Yosi Saadon to wrap up the quad doubles title after a three-way round-robin event.