Netherlands and France Take Wimbledon

Wheelchair Tennis fans were focused on Wimbledon 2009 this past weekend, as the Men's and Women’s Doubles Tournament brought out the best in the Paralympic Sport to Great Britain from 3-5 July.

Familiar pair from the Netherlands, Korie Homan and Esther Vergeer took the win in the finals against Daniela Di Toro from Australia and Lucy Shuker from Great Britain, winning both sets 6-1 and 6-3. The Dutch pair successfully won their third major competition of 2009, having already won the Australian Open and Roland Garros Doubles titles.

In the Men’s Doubles, French pair Stephane Houdet and Michael Jeremiasz took the hard-fought win against Robin Ammerlaan from the Netherlands and Shingo Kunieda from Japan. The French athletes lost the first set 6-1, but came back to win after taking the next two 6-4 and 7-6.

The French pair were top seeds in one of the strongest fields ever assembled in the five-year history of the Men’s Wheelchair Doubles at Wimbledon. With the win, Houdet and Jeremiasz added their second title at a major competition in a month, having also won at the Roland Garros tournament. This is also Jeremiasz’s second Wimbledon Wheelchair Doubles title.

This year was the inaugural event for the Women’s Doubles, following the same format that the Men’s Doubles has followed since its introduction to The Championships in 2005. This included four of the world’s leading Doubles partnerships competing for the top tier of world ranking points in an event sanctioned by the International Tennis Federation (ITF) as part of the global NEC Wheelchair Tennis Tour.

Eight of the top ten ranked Men’s Doubles players and eight of the top 11 ranked Women’s Doubles players contested the events at Wimbledon this year.