Alcott and Wagner head year-end world No.1s

Former Paralympic wheelchair basketball player Alcott succeeds the USA’s David Wagner. 05 Jan 2016
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Dylan Alcott celebrates winning his quad wheelchair tennis singles match against Great Britain's Andy Lapthorne at the 2014 Australian Open.

Dylan Alcott

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ITF

The International Tennis Federation (ITF) announced that Dylan Alcott of Australia is the year-end world No. 1 wheelchair tennis player for the quad singles in 2015 succeeding USA’s David Wagner, who ends 2015 as year-end No. 1 quad doubles player for the 12th time.

While Shingo Kunieda of Japan and Jiske Griffioen of Netherlands are the year-end No. 1 men’s and women’s singles players, Griffioen also finishes the year at No. 1 in women’s doubles, while Gordon Reid is year-end No. 1 in men’s doubles for the first time.

Great Britain’s Alfie Hewett and Russia’s Viktoriia Lvova complete 2015 as the year-end No. 1 players in the junior boys’ and girls’ rankings.

Alcott finishes 2015 as the year-end world No. 1 quad singles player for the first time after beating Wagner in the finals of both Grand Slam quad singles events at the Australian Open and the US Open. Alcott won his first singles title at one of the majors on home soil in Melbourne in January.

Alcott started the season by building a winning streak of 18 matches and the 25-year-old ended the year having won a total of nine singles titles. As well as his two Grand Slam titles, Alcott also won three Super Series titles, at the Sydney International Open, the Japan Open and the BNP Paribas Open de France, two ITF 1 Series titles and two ITF 2 Series titles. He ends 2015 with a win-loss record of 40-5 in quad singles competition.

Wagner is the year-end No. 1 quad doubles player for the twelfth successive year.

Wagner won eight doubles titles during 2015. Six of his doubles titles during the season came with fellow American Nick Taylor, including the US Open crown, which they won for the seventh time and the UNIQLO Wheelchair Doubles Masters title, which they won as a partnership for the ninth time since 2005.

As well as two Grand Slam titles and the season-ending Doubles Masters, Wagner clinched Super Series doubles success at the British Open and four ITF 1 Series titles and won his eight doubles titles during 2015 with three different partners. He ends 2015 with a doubles win-loss record of 29-5 in quad doubles competition.

Reid is the year-end men’s doubles No. 1 player for the first time after winning 10 doubles titles on the 2015 UNIQLO Wheelchair Tennis Tour, including his first two Grand Slam titles, at Roland Garros, partnering Kunieda and the US Open, partnering Stephane Houdet. Reid partnered another Frenchman, Michael Jeremiasz, to win the year-end UNIQLO Wheelchair Doubles Masters title and subsequently clinched the No. 1 ranking for the first time. The Brit ends Houdet’s sequence of six successive year-end world No. 1 men’s doubles awards.

Reid also won three Super Series titles, at the Japan Open, the British Open and the USTA Championships, as well as two ITF 1 Series doubles titles and two ITF 2 Series Doubles titles. He claimed his 10 doubles titles during the season with five different doubles partners, ending the year with a doubles win-loss record of 35-6.

Griffioen is the year-end world No. 1 women’s doubles player for the fifth time after winning a total of seven doubles titles on the 2015 UNIQLO Wheelchair Tennis Tour. She won all seven doubles titles partnering fellow Dutchwoman Aniek van Koot. Griffioen and van Koot completed 2015 with the same doubles points, but Griffioen finished the year with the No. 1 ranking after playing 11 events, compared to the 12 doubles events played by van Koot.

Roland Garros and US Open champions Griffioen and van Koot shared the year’s four Grand Slam women’s doubles titles with two-time Australian Open and Wimbledon champions Yui Kamiji of Japan and Jordanne Whiley of Great Britain. The two partnerships had each won the calendar year Grand Slam in women’s doubles in 2013 and 2014 respectively.

As well as two Grand Slam doubles titles Griffioen also partnered van Koot to win three Super Series titles, at the Sydney International Open, the BNP Paribas Open de France and the British Open, the ITF 1 Series Open de la Baie de Somme and the UNIQLO Wheelchair Doubles Masters.

Hewett is the year-end No. 1 boys’ singles player for the third successive year. After recently turning 18-years-old Hewett will no longer be eligible for junior competition or the junior rankings in 2016.

Lvova, 17, is the year-end No.1 girls’ singles player for the second successive year.