Nick Taylor, David Wagner grab seventh doubles title

French fourth seeds Michael Jeremiasz and Nicolas Peifer beat third seeds Joachim Gerard and Shingo Kunieda, 6-3, 6-3, in their Doubles Masters semi-final and will now go on to play top seeds Stephane Houdet of France and Gordon Reid of Great Britain for the title.

Top seeds Nick Taylor and David Wagner clinched their seventh quad doubles crown on Sunday (10 November) in Mission Viejo, California, as the first of six titles were decided at the 2013 NEC Wheelchair Tennis Masters and ITF Wheelchair Doubles Masters.

The duo comfortably retained their title with a 6-1, 6-2 win over their fellow American Greg Hasterok and Canada’s Sarah Hunter, the second seeds.

Taylor and Wagner dropped just the second game of the opening set and maintained their dominance in the second set to close out victory and win their seventh Doubles Masters title since 2005.

World No. 1 Wagner will now face South Africa’s world No. 2 Lucas Sithole in Monday’s quad singles final, as Wagner goes for his sixth NEC Masters title, while US Open champion Sithole will bid to become the first African to win an NEC Masters title. Wagner finished the round-robin phase of the competition unbeaten, having beaten Sithole in their pool match.

French fourth seeds Michael Jeremiasz and Nicolas Peifer beat third seeds Joachim Gerard and Shingo Kunieda, 6-3, 6-3, in their Doubles Masters semi-final and will now go on to play top seeds Stephane Houdet of France and Gordon Reid of Great Britain for the title.

Houdet will bid for his second successive Doubles Masters title after he and Reid defeated Dutch second seeds and three-time Doubles Masters men’s champions Maikel Scheffers and Ronald Vink 6-2, 6-3 in the other semi-final.

Japan’s Yui Kamiji partnered with Whiley to win their doubles semifinal on Sunday as the top seeds and Wimbledon runners-up beat fourth seeds and Australian Open runners-up Lucy Shuker and Buis 6-2, 6-3.

Meanwhile, Griffioen’s hopes of retaining both the women’s singles and women’s doubles titles came to an end in the doubles semi-finals. Second seeds Griffioen and Sharon Walraven were beaten 6-2, 6-2 by third seeds Sabine Ellerbrock of Germany and Kgothatso Montjane of South Africa.

Ellerbrock and Montjane’s victory means that two new names will appear on the women’s doubles roll of honour, while it will be the first time in the 14 year history of the Doubles Masters that the winning partnership will not include a Dutch player, with all-Dutch partnerships having won the last 12 women’s titles at the Doubles Masters.