Whiley hails successful return to international wheelchair tennis
Ten-time Grand Slam champion, Jordanne Whiley has exceeded even her own high expectations after making back-to-back singles finals and winning a singles and a doubles title on her return to international wheelchair tennis after giving birth to son Jackson in January 2018.
Jordanne returns to the International’s Tennis Federation’s (ITF) world rankings at No. 38 this week, after winning the LTA’s Wrexham Indoor ITF 3 and finishing runner-up on Saturday at the ITF 2 Bolton Indoor. She chalked up nine straight sets wins in 10 matches over 10 days.
Jordanne was 11 weeks pregnant at Wimbledon 2017, where she won her fourth successive women’s doubles title at her home Grand Slam, partnering with Japan’s Yui Kamiji.
After returning to training last October, Whiley made her return to domestic competition at December’s National Championships, where she lifted her fifth National singles title. However, the return to international competition brought a whole new level of intensity. In her 10 matches over the last two weeks she played seven Top 20 players, including three Top 10-ranked opponents.
Jordanne beat world No. 9 Katharina Kruger of Germany and world No. 3 Aniek van Koot of the Netherlands to win the Wrexham final and reach the Bolton quarter-finals.
Jordanne said:
"I’ve certainly exceeded my expectations, I didn’t expect to reach any finals so early in my comeback and I didn’t’ expect to do so well against players like Dana (Mathewson – current world No.13) and Aniek, who are almost Top 10 and then Top 5, respectively. I went into some matches thinking ‘I’m going to lose’ and I was prepared to lose, but I kept on winning and then it was a case of taking it a match at a time."
Going into the ITF 2 Bolton Indoor Singles final, Whiley had won her first nine matches of 2019 in straight sets. She sealed her 19th successive set to take the lead against Italy’s world No.5 Giulia Capocci, before the second seed came back to win 3-6, 6-2, 6-4.
"I’ve never played her before and I didn’t know what to expect today, so to go three sets with her is quite good. She played some unbelievable tennis and after so many matches over the last 10 days my body is tired, but it’s been a very successful two weeks."
Whiley’s next challenge comes next week, when she files to Switzerland for the ITF 3 Biel-Bienne Indoors and her first overseas tournament since her comeback.
The two-time Paralympic doubles bronze medallist, who is aiming to try and qualify for what will be her fourth Paralympics at Tokyo 2020, is then scheduled to contest back-to-back tournaments in Korea in April as she attempts to improve her ranking in order to be considered for a wild card for Wimbledon.
