Van Koot to meet Ellerbrock in Australian Open final

Aniek van Koot and Sabine Ellerbrock advanced to the Australian Open women’s singles final, as did Shingo Kunieda and Stephane Houdet on the men’s side. 24 Jan 2013 By IPC

The Netherlands’ Aniek van Koot survived two match points against her in her women’s singles semi-final on Thursday (24 January) to set up a title decider against Germany’s Sabine Ellerbrock, and Japan’s Shingo Kunieda and France’s Stephane Houdet both justified their seedings to reach the men’s final.

The top two seeds will meet in both of Saturday’s (26 January) men’s and women’s singles finals at the Australian Open, the first Grand Slam tournament of the year on the NEC Wheelchair Tennis Tour.

The Netherlands’ Aniek van Koot survived two match points against her in her women’s singles semi-final on Thursday (24 January) to set up a title decider against Germany’s Sabine Ellerbrock, and Japan’s Shingo Kunieda and France’s Stephane Houdet both justified their seedings to reach the men’s final.

In the quad singles event, world No. 1 David Wagner maintained his bid for his second Australian Open title after he and fellow American Nick Taylor both claimed three-set wins in the second tier of round-robin matches.

Women’s singles

Last year’s runner-up and top seed this year, van Koot looked like she might bow out in the semi-finals after winning just one game in her first set against fellow Dutchwoman and world No. 5 Marjolein Buis.

However, with Buis having already beaten world No. 3 Jiske Griffioen in the quarter-finals, she was unable to complete another upset despite having two match points in the second set, and van Koot went on to seal her place in the final 1-6, 7-6 (6), 6-3.

In the other women’s singles semi-final, second seed and world No. 4 Ellerbrock held on to beat world No. 7 Lucy Shuker with a 7-6 (1), 7-5 victory, securing the German a place in her first Grand Slam singles final.

Men’s singles

World No. 1 Kunieda raced through his semi-final against world No. 8 Stefan Olsson of Sweden, 6-0, 6-2, as he continued his attempt for a sixth Australian Open men’s singles title.

Kunieda needed just 46 minutes to extend his current unbeaten sequence of singles matches since mid–June of 2012 to 32, setting up his fourth Australian Open final appearance since 2009 against Houdet, the player Kunieda replaced as world No. 1 this week.

Houdet had a much tougher passage into the final but came through to beat Dutch world No. 4 Ronald Vink, 6-1, 3-6, 6-3. He will now meet Kunieda in their second Grand slam final in the last eight months.

Quad singles

The 2011 Australian Open champion Wagner put himself in the top position in the round-robin group phase of the quad singles after earning a hard-won 7-5, 1-6, 6-4 victory over world No. 4 and second-seeded Andy Lapthorne of Great Britain.

After losing to Lapthorne on the opening day of play in Melbourne, world No. 6 Taylor posted his first win of the tournament after coming from a set down to beat Swedish world No. 5 Anders Hard, 3-6, 6-4, 6-1.

London 2012 bronze medallist Taylor and silver medallist Wagner will now play each other on the last day of round-robin competition, while Lapthorne takes on Hard for the second time in a week after already meeting in a title decider at the Melbourne Open.

Men’s doubles

Adam Kellerman will certainly remember his Grand Slam debut for a long time after the Australian partnered with Olsson to beat top seeds Houdet and Vink, 6-4, 7-6 (6) in the men’s doubles semi-finals.

Kellerman, who won a wildcard playoff on Monday against fellow Australian Ben Weekes to gain his place in the men’s field, will now partner with Olsson to play second seeds Michael Jeremiasz of France and Kunieda in Friday’s final. Jeremiasz and Kunieda beat Argentina’s Gustavo Fernandez and Maikel Scheffers of the Netherlands, 6-3, 6-2 in the other semi-final.

Women’s doubles

There was a scare for top seeds and Wimbledon champions Griffioen and van Koot in their women’s double semi-final on Thursday before they went on to win 6-0, 1-6, 7-5 victory.

The reigning Doubles Masters champions eased through the opening set against Australia’s Daniela di Toro and Kgothatso Montjane of South Africa without dropping a game but then could win only the sixth game of the second set.

After van Koot required repairs to her tennis chair between sets, the Dutch top seeds regrouped to take a 3-0 lead in the final set before di Toro and Montjane fought back and finally level the match at 5-5. However, their efforts were ultimately in vain and as Griffioen and van Koot wrapped up the victory.

Griffioen and van Koot will now play second seeds Buis and Shuker in the women’s doubles final after Buis and Shuker won their semi-final over Ellerbrock and Sharon Walraven, 7-5, 6-3.