Champs to be crowned as Bath Indoor Wheelchair Tennis Tournament reaches final stages
There will be plenty of British interest when the first finals of the inaugural Bath Indoor Wheelchair Tennis Tournament are contested at the University of Bath on Friday.
James Shaw faces Israel’s Itay Erenlib in a battle between the top two seeds in the quad singles final, starting at 10am on Court 1 in the Sports Training Village.
The afternoon session will see double Paralympic medallist Lucy Shuker and Dutch partner Diede De Groot contest the women’s doubles final against Marjolein Buis of the Netherlands and Germany’s Katharina Kruger on Court 2.
Top seeds De Groot and Shuker booked their place in the final with a hard-fought 6-4 3-6 10-8 victory over University of Bath Sports Performance graduate Louise Hunt and South African doubles partner Kgothatso Montjane.
The women’s double final will follow the men’s singles semi-final between Belgium’s Joachim Gerard and Stefan Olsson of Sweden, which starts at 12.30pm. They will face either Britain’s Alfie Hewett or Gustavo Fernandez of Argentina in Saturday’s final – their semi-final follows the quad final on Court 1.
Friday will also see Britain’s Lauren Jones take on Katharina Kruger of Germany in the women’s consolation final from 11am on Court 3.
The main women’s final is between Sabine Ellerbrock of Germany and De Groot – that will start at 11am on Court 3 on Saturday. The men’s single final will be at 9.45am on Court 1, followed by the men’s double final – Gerard and Olsson against Fernandez and Maikel Scheffers of the Netherlands.
The prestigious ITF-1 level competition, organised by the Tennis Foundation, has been hosted at the Sports Training Village this week as part of the University of Bath’s 50th-anniversary celebrations.
As well as watching world-class wheelchair tennis, visitors to the STV on Saturday will also be able to take to the indoor courts themselves during a free ‘come and try’ session from 11am-1pm. It is open to everyone, disabled and non-disabled, and all equipment will be provided.
