Tokyo’s probably the highlight of my career: Jordanne Whiley

Jordanne Whiley has played Wheelchair Tennis for 25 years, but it is her penultimate tournament as a competitor that she is most proud of.

Whiley finished the Tokyo Paralympics with a singles bronze medal and a doubles silver medal – an unprecedented achievement for a British female Wheelchair player and just one of several history-making landmarks she achieved along her journey.

“I think Tokyo’s probably the highlight, just because I finally got on the singles podium, which is what I’d been trying to do my whole Paralympic career,” says the 29-year-old, who retired last month.

“And then me and Lucy (Shuker) getting that silver, as well. After everything, with me taking 18 months out to have (son) Jackson... then COVID happened, and to then come out and win my two best medals, after everything that’s happened, is something I’m really proud of.”

After two successive doubles bronze medals at London 2012 and Rio 2016 and her mission to finish her career with a singles medal accomplished in her penultimate match in Tokyo, Whiley ended her Paralympic career with a silver lining as she and Shuker finished runners-up to Diede de Groot and Aniek van Koot. In doing so, she finally bettered the bronze medal won by her father Keith in the L3 100m Wheelchair Sprint at the 1984 Paralympics in New York.

Keith won his bronze medal some eight years before his daughter was born, but as an accomplished multi-sport athlete it was his enthusiasm for Wheelchair Tennis that was to pave the way for Whiley’s success. At just three, she first picked up a racket and was awarded her first ‘trophy’ when she attended the Israel Open with her father and the tournament organisers wanted to publicly recognise ‘the youngest Wheelchair Tennis player they had ever seen’.

In 2013, Whiley brought things full circle. Returning to the Israel Open for the first time since her initial visit, she won the ITF 2 women’s singles and doubles titles – two of more than 100 singles and doubles titles she won on the UNIQLO Wheelchair Tennis Tour in junior or senior competition between 2006 and this season.

“As a kid I was just scrawny and shy and tennis gave me a lot of things,” says Whiley, who followed her return from Israel, aged three, by then embarking on a series of Wheelchair Tennis camps throughout her childhood organised by the former British Tennis Foundation.

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“I tried racing and basketball, between the ages of about eight to 10. But it just wasn’t for me, so I stuck with tennis. I did my first tennis camp when I was four and did those for a number of years before I got on to the GB programme,” she adds.

“It was mainly that tennis was an individual sport. I’m not very good in teams sports and I found that when I was going Wheelchair Racing it was not very challenging. It was the same thing every day, whereas I wanted something that was a bit more challenging and that’s why I really liked tennis.

“It was a healthy way of life, it improved my mindset, my confidence and my self-esteem. Just having that ability to travel and make new friends all over the world and see different cultures and really be independent.”

Whiley mentions two tournaments as being particularly significant during her career, starting with the Beijing Paralympics in 2008, which she qualified for at the age of 16.

“I remember coming back from Beijing and thinking ‘this is the life that I want’. I think before that I probably wasn’t taking it too seriously. I was still in school and I didn’t really know what it meant to go to a Paralympics and when I came back from Beijing I decided to quit college and really give it a go. I really loved it at Beijing.”

The second tournament is the 2015 US Open, where she won her first and only Grand Slam singles title.

“When I won the US Open in 2015, that was really a turning point in my career as I went on to have a really successful year, until Rio,” says Whiley, who beat Yui Kamiji 6-4 0-6 6-1 in a roller coaster late-night title decider in New York having had a total of nine championship points.

“It was a crazy match, It was about 1am. Geraint (Richards, former GB coach) was there watching me and I remember I won a pretty close first set and then lost the second set in about 20 minutes, having won only seven points. Then I won the third set in about another 20 minutes. It was seriously a bit of a crazy one and we finished at about 2am.

“I felt like I was on track for gold and I felt that if I was going to win gold it was going to be then,” adds Whiley as she recalls riding the crest of a wave. “Even though I was not World No. 1 on paper, I felt like I was, in myself. I was beating everyone on a regular basis. I won the British Open two years on the trot (2015 and 2016) and it was just unfortunate that I got injured when I did. And then, of course, I had maternity leave and it all went downhill from there,” she jokes.

The injury of which Whiley speaks was the root of her biggest disappointment as a player, after a stress fracture in her wrist contributed to a 6-3, 6-1 singles quarter-final loss to De Groot at the Rio Paralympics in 2016.

“Obviously it was not my fault … there was nothing I could have done about it, but it took me a good year to get over it,“ reflects Whiley. “I’m glad I had that time out when I did because I needed it. I honestly felt like I could have won gold. I had a good draw, everything was going in my favour, I stormed the first round and then I did something to my wrist in my second round match before I played Diede in the quarters. I couldn’t really play properly and I was very lucky to get the bronze (in doubles) with Lucy, considering all that was going on.”

While beating Kamiji to win the 2015 US Open title was a key moment for Whiley, it was with former by her side that she enjoyed unparalleled success.

Initially it was a partnership born out of necessity, with both players seemingly heading to Wimbledon in 2013 without doubles partners. However, they eventually arrived in London having won their first two tournaments together, including Whiley’s first Super Series title at the BNP Paribas Open de France just two weeks earlier. After finishing as Wimbledon runners-up they ended 2013 with the first of two successive UNIQLO Wheelchair Doubles Masters titles.

“It was a friendship that just happened quite naturally. Obviously Yui couldn’t speak English at the beginning and she thought I was a bit scary, but the more we played together the more she started saying things in English and we started hanging out more and more and using translators and so on,” says Whiley. “It wasn’t something we had to force and some of the best friendships come out of that.”

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The chemistry that comes out of a close friendship saw Whiley and Kamiji flourish as doubles partners. They completed the calendar Grand Slam in women’s doubles in 2014, Whiley becoming the first British tennis player in any sphere to complete a calendar Grand Slam, while their fifth Wimbledon title together in 2021 was their 12th and last as a doubles partnership. However, having won their fourth Wimbledon title in 2017 when Whiley was 11 weeks pregnant, there was an extra special element to this year’s win.

“I didn’t go to Australia this year and Roland Garros and the US Open were absolute disasters. In terms of a Slam year, it was horrendous, so I’m really happy that we managed to win one more Wimbledon,” says Whiley, who got to parade the trophy around the court with son Jackson on her lap. “I’d have been really gutted it was hadn’t have won it. To have Jackson there to come and parade the trophy with me, it was so adorable. It went viral.”

On announcing her retirement, Whiley said ‘I have lifted many titles and received many honours, but nothing compares to the people I have shared it all with and the experiences I have had along the way’.

In terms of Kamiji, she says: “I’m sad I won’t see her as much and I’ll miss her, but we’re going to stay in contact and I’m going to be at Wimbledon next year and I’ll be around at the British Open.”

Currently still World ranked No. 4 in singles and No. 3 in doubles, as Whiley enters retirement as an athlete and continues life as a mum and a mortgage adviser she believes she leaves Wheelchair Tennis in excellent shape.

“It think the sport’s in a great position. It’s getting more and more professional and hopefully the Slams will introduce bigger draws soon,” she says.

“The sport’s much more aggressive now, the men’s and the women’s, but the men’s got ridiculously good and for the women I think the most change has happened over the last couple of years,” she adds, as she observes the changes she’s seen during her career.

“You’ve had the likes of myself, Yui, Diede and Aniek all there. Basically, I think since Esther (Vergeer) retired it opened up the game and it’s evolved again over the last four years or so. The women’s game is just at a different standard now and the standard is so high inside the top seven. But it’s also nice to see new people like Angelica (Bernal), Dana (Mathewson) has now broken into the top 10 and then you have the likes of Maca (Cabrillana), who’s been around for a while but went to the Masters for the first time. It’s nice to see different people at the Slams and at the Masters.

“In terms of British tennis, we’re always looking for more people and we have a great junior team at the moment and some really promising future stars," Whiley continues. "Hopefully in five years' time it’s going to really exciting. I think now it’s a case of focusing on the grass roots and getting as many players into the sport as possible.”