Jordanne Whiley renews her London 2012 bronze medal-winning partnership with Lucy Shuker in France this week after collecting her latest women’s doubles title with Japan’s Yui Kamiji over the weekend at the Sardinia Open in Italy.
World No.4 in singles and world No.1 in doubles, Whiley contests her second ITF 1 Series event in successive weeks as she lines up alongside the world’s top two ranked Dutch players Jiske Griffioen and Aniek van Koot in a stellar field at the Open de la Baie Somme in Rue. The tournament is set to host eight of the world’s top ten women’s players.
Whiley’s first tournament since beating van Koot and Kamiji to win her first Grand Slam singles title at the US Open began well for Ickenham’s British No.1, who gained successive 6-0, 6-0 and 6-4, 6-3 wins over Turkey’s Busra Un and South Africa’s Kgothatso Montjane.
Faced with a rematch of her final in New York against Kamiji, Whiley’s winning streak came to an end in the semi-finals in Sardinia as Kamiji earned a 7-6(6), 6-3 win, but the combined force of Whiley and Kamiji proved too much for their opposition in the doubles.
The six time Grand Slam champions dropped just four games en route to the final and then edged out second seeds Montjane and van Koot 6-2, 3-6, (10-6) for their fifth title together this season.
“I felt I didn't play great the whole tournament and I was disappointed with my singles result. I was a bit too up and down and Yui played well and was the better player on the day,” said Whiley. “But, of course, we love playing doubles together and obviously I'm very happy we got another doubles win under our belts, even if it was closer than we would have liked.”
Griffioen and van Koot, who have contested the last seven Grand Slam doubles final against Whiley and Kamiji will provide tough opposition in singles and doubles in Rue this week, where Kamiji is the only player in the world’s top eight not in contention after returning to Japan.
Whiley and Shuker are among four players on the Tennis Foundation’s Wheelchair Tennis Performance Programme contesting this week’s Open de la Baie de Somme, which is the last major tournament before next week’s ranking cut-off for qualification for the year-end NEC Wheelchair Tennis Masters in Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park on 2-6 December.
