Andy Lapthorne and Greg Slade dominated the quad singles and doubles events!
British players Andy Lapthorne and Greg Slade dominated the quad singles and doubles events as back-to-back international wheelchair tennis tournaments organised by the LTA came to a close on Sunday at Bolton Arena with Brits having won four titles across 10 days of world class competition.
It’s the 10th year that Bolton has played host to at least one world ranking tournament on the International Tennis Federation’s UNIQLO Wheelchair Tennis Tour, with 17-time Grand Slam champion Lapthorne taking home the ITF 2 quad singes title for the fourth time since 2016.
World No.8 Lapthorne, who is supported by the LTA’s Elite Wheelchair Programme, earned three straight sets wins earlier in the week before being awarded a walkover in Sunday’s quad singles final, where he was due to face American Andrew Bogdanov. The first four-time winner of a singles title in Bolton, Lapthorne said:
“To win four singles titles in Bolton since 2016 is a record I can be really proud of. It’s always special to win a tournament at home and Bolton’s generally fitted perfectly into my tournament programme between tournaments in Australia and the USA. This year, especially, it’s nice to get a singles title on the board early in Paralympic year.”
Three-time Paralympic medallist Lapthorne added the ITF 2 quad doubles title alongside fellow Brit Greg Slade after the top seeds beat Brazilian duo Leandro Pena and Ymanitu Silva 6-0, 6-4 in the final to regain a title they first won together in 2022.
Slade is already on the way to his next tournament in the USA after becoming the most successful of the players from 28 countries who contested the successive ITF 2 and ITF 3 tournaments in Bolton.
The British No.2 won three of the four titles for quad division players, whose disability affects both upper and lower limbs, after beating Pena 6-3, 6-0 in the ITF 3 quad singles final at the start of the week. Slade then partnered Slovakia’s Tomas Masaryk to beat Pena and Silva for the first of two doubles titles in four days.
Already a two-time women’s singles champion in Bolton, Lucy Shuker earned the ITF 2 women’s doubles title for the sixth time since the inaugural tournament in 2014 after she partnered Cornelia Oosthuizen to another all-British title.
Runners-up last year, Shuker and Oosthuizen wrapped up their first doubles title together after defeating South American second seeds Angelica Bernal and Maria Florencia Moreno 6-1, 2-6, (10-8) following a deciding championship tie-break.
Former world No.1 and top seed Stephane Houdet of France became the sixth player to add his name to the ITF 2 men’s singles roll of honour since 2014 after beating Dutchman Tom Egberink 6-4, 6-3.
Meanwhile, Colombian third seed Bernal became the seventh player to clinch the women’s singles title in Bolton after beating the USA’s reigning champion and second seed Dana Mathewson 6-3, 6-1 in Sunday’s final, having already beaten Chinese top seed Zhenzhen Zhu 7-6(2), 6-3 in the semi-finals.
