Taylor nears career close as Doubles Masters groups progress
Turn the clock back to the UNIQLO Wheelchair Doubles Masters in 2016, 2017 and 2018 and Nick Taylor and David Wagner played Brits Antony Cotterill and Andy Lapthorne in three successive quad doubles finals, the USA duo winning two of those deciders as they extended their Doubles Masters record to a remarkable 11 titles.
Between them the two partnerships went head-to-head six times in total at the ITF’s year-end championships in those three years, including their round-robin meetings. The beauty of the format meant that Cotterill and Lapthorne lost to Taylor and Wagner in their round-robin encounter in 2016 before going on to win the final. In 2017, it was the other way round as Cotterill and Lapthorne won their round-robin head-to-head, while Taylor and Wagner went on to victory when they met again in the final.
In the present day, Cotterill and Lapthorne and Taylor and Wagner went head-to-head for what is quite probably the last time on the third day of play at the USTA National Campus in Orlando and they produced a match that ebbed and flowed as much as any of their previous encounters.
Taylor and Wagner showed all the skill and tenacity that has seen them accumulate three Paralympic gold medals, 11 Grand Slam crowns and over 100 career doubles titles as they took the opening set 6-0, but the record books will show a 0-6 7-5 6-3 win for Cotterill and Lapthorne.
Taylor is set to retire at the end of his and Wagner’s 2021 Doubles Masters campaign in Orlando. And while he concedes that it may be ‘mathematically possible’ that the celebrated American duo advance to this year’s semi-finals, should all the cards fall in their favour, the reality is that Taylor and Wagner and Cotterill and Lapthorne will go into Thursday’s last day of round-robin competition occupying the last two positions in the group of four teams.
Reflecting on Tuesday’s match, Taylor said: “It was a streaky match, they (Cotterill and Lapthorne) very much know what to do against us and just because we won the first set 6-0 we did not remotely let our guard down. Early in the second set we had a couple of games that were really long and that we lost and it’s always been a strong theory of mine that the longer a game goes the bigger it becomes, momentum-wise.”
“For me, nothing beats representing your country in sport, but I’d much rather end my career on American soil at the National Centre for the United States than to have done it at World Team Cup,” added Taylor.
Tuesday’s other quad doubles match at the USTA National campus could end up being repeated in this year’s final after Dutch top seeds Sam Schroder and Niels Vink beat 2019 finalists Kyu-Seung Kim and Koji Sugeno 6-3 6-4, with the Korean and Japanese partnership now set to play Taylor and Wagner on Thursday.
Before then, Wednesday’s fourth day of action will see the conclusion of the men’s and women’s doubles round-robin groups after Momoko Ohtani and Zhenzhen Zhu maintained their unbeaten record in Orlando with a 7-5 6-2 win over 2017 semi-finalists Dana Mathewson and Lucy Shuker. While Ohtani and Zhu head into the semi-finals as winners of Group B in the women’s doubles, Mathewson and Shuker face Japanese second seeds Yui Kamiji and Saki Takamuro with one of the two remaining semi-finals berths at stake.
Dutch top seeds Diede de Groot and Aniek van Koot and Chile’s Macarena Cabrillana and South Africa’s Kgothatso Montjane are set to progress to the semi-finals from Group A after both partnerships beat Angelica Bernal and Maria Florencia Moreno. Cabrillana and Montjane won the latest Group A match-up against the South American duo 6-2 6-4 to secure themselves the win that takes them into the semi-finals, regardless of the result of their last round-robin match up against De Groot and Van Koot
The much-anticipated men’s Group A meeting between the Tokyo Paralympic silver and bronze medallists ended with top seeds Alfie Hewett and Gordon Reid beating Dutch duo Tom Egberink and Maikel Scheffers 6-4 6-0, the Brits being taken to deuce just once in the second set.
“Our intensity was 10 times better in the second set and we got a lot more depth on the ball, which made it more difficult for them, especially for Tom to come on to his forehand,” said Hewett as he and Reid continued their bid for a second Doubles Masters title.
Hewett and Reid complete their group matches against Alexander Cataldo and Casey Ratzlaff, who registered their first win of the week when beating the all-American team of Chris Herman and Conner Stroud 6-1 6-4. Herman and Stroud end their round-robin campaign against Egberink and Scheffers.
After starting their week with a walkover in Group B of the men’s doubles, 2019 semi-finalists Ruben Spaargaren and Jef Vandorpe go into the last day of round-robin matches already assured of joining second seeds Stephane Houdet and Nicolas Peifer in the semi-finals, both partnerships having two wins apiece.
Spaargaren and Vandorpe eased to a 6-4 6-1 win over Dermot Bailey and Tokito Oda in their first competitive outing in Orlando, while Houdet and Peifer also encountered few problems in defeating Martin de la Puente and Gustavo Fernandez 6-2 6-1.