Paralympian Norfolk heads bill for Nottingham Indoor Championships

Two-time Paralympic quad singles champion Peter Norfolk OBE heads a host of world top 10 ranked players and a strong British contingent that are among a field of 70 for the 15th Nottingham Indoor Championships, part of the NEC Wheelchair Tennis Tour and the final British-based world ranking event of 2009.

The event gets underway on Thursday, 29th October, at the City of Nottingham Tennis Centre.

Norfolk is among eight players entered for this week’s penultimate ITF 2 Series tournament of the 2009 NEC Wheelchair Tennis Tour who are contesting the Nottingham Indoor as their last major event in the build up to next month’s NEC Wheelchair Tennis Singles Masters, the year-end highlight for the world’s best players, in Amsterdam.

While Norfolk is world ranked No 2 in the quad singles, world No 3 ranked players and Beijing Paralympic bronze medallists Maikel Scheffers of the Netherlands and Florence Gravellier of France, head three world top 10 men’s players and five world top 10 women’s players in one of the strongest ever fields at the Nottingham Indoor.

A week on from collecting his OBE from Her Majesty the Queen at Buckingham Palace, Hampshire-based Norfolk returns to the City of Nottingham Tennis almost three months after hitting the winning shot in the World Team Cup, as Great Britain’s quad team won their version of the Davis and Fed Cups of wheelchair tennis for the third time.  Norfolk bids for a fourth Nottingham Indoor quad title this week as he warms up for next month’s NEC Singles Masters, where a second Masters title would earn the Briton the year-end world No 1 quad singles ranking for the fifth time in seven seasons. 

The Netherlands’ Dorrie Timmermans-van Hall and Israel’s Boaz Kramer provide the overseas challenge to the largely British entry for the quad singles.  World No 8 Timmermans bids to improve on the quarter-final berth she gained in the 2007 Nottingham Indoor, while world No 12 Kramer will hope for a big improvement in his fortunes after going out in the first round on his two previous visits to the Nottingham Indoor in 2005 and 2006. 

Scheffers and world No 4 Stefan Olsson have won the last two Nottingham Indoor men’s main draw singles titles and are seeded to go head-to-head in this year’s final, but Dutch world No 9 Ronald Vink and world No 11 Frederic Cattaneo of France are sure to provide stiff opposition.  Olsson won last year’s title en route to becoming the youngest ever winner of the NEC Singles Masters.

Meanwhile, Scotland’s 18-year-old British No 1 and world No 16 Gordon Reid, a semi-finalist in last year’s Nottingham Indoor, will be out to try and upset those players seeded above him.

Nottinghamshire’s British No 2 David Phillipson, a former winner of the men’s second draw singles and the men’s main draw consolation singles is another who will be out to try and upset the seedings.  The Bingham 20-year-old world No 24 missed last year’s Nottingham Indoor after surgery and a good performance this year will boost his chances of improving on his career high world ranking of No 23 by the end of the season.

Additional local East Midlands interest in the men’s main draw will also be provided by Leciestershire’s former multiple Nottingham Indoor champion and former British No 1 Jayant Mistry.  The former world top 10 player and reigning National champion returns to the venue of some of the biggest successes of his career.
                                                   
Gravellier, the world’s highest ranked non-Dutch player, bids for her first Nottingham Indoor title, but last year’s runner-up and world No 6 Aniek Van Koot and world No 7 and 2005 champion Jiske Griffioen give the Netherlands a strong hand.  World No 8 ranked German Katharina Kruger will join Gravellier, Griffioen and van Koot in the field for November’s NEC Singles Masters and will provide a live threat on her days.

Belgium’s world No 10 Annick Sevenans will be another strong contender, along with Somerset’s British No 1 and defending champion Lucy Shuker. World No 11 Shuker will hope to reproduce the kind of form that saw her beat van Koot in last year’s final, with Warwickshire’s 17-year-old British No 2 and world No 13 Jordanne Whiley also out to enhance her growing reputation. 

Like Reid in the men’s main draw singles field, Whiley is on course to end 2009 with a Junior World No 1 ranking.

The Nottingham Indoor Wheelchair Tennis Tournament, part of the NEC Wheelchair Tennis Tour, begins on Thursday, 29 October, with the finals on Sunday, 1 November.  Entry is FREE to all spectators throughout the tournament.