Great Britain Set to Host Record Amount of Wheelchair Tennis Tournaments in 2014

Great Britain is set to host their largest amount of rankingevents in the Wheelchair Tennis Tour with the 2014 NEC Wheelchair TennisMasters headlining the tournaments. 

The International Tennis Federation released their calendar thisweek for the 2014 season with the 2014 NEC Wheelchair Tennis Masters, theyear-end championship for the world’s leading singles players, being theshowpiece.

Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park will host the NEC Wheelchair TennisMasters from 2014-2016, which will be one of three tournaments in 2014organised by the Tennis Foundation, along with July’s British Open, one of sixevents on the ITF Wheelchair Tennis Tour to have Super Series status, thehighest tier of wheelchair tennis tournament outside of the Grand Slams.Nottingham Tennis Centre will once again host the British Open in July beforethe ITF 1 Series Nottingham Indoors returns there in November.

The upcoming 2013 Nottingham Indoors (23-27 October) was promotedto ITF 1 Series this year for the first time. The 2014 British tournaments willget underway with the ITF 3 Series North West Challenge at South Ribble TennisCentre, Preston.

The North West Challenge will be the first of two British-basedtournaments taking place in successive weeks in February, as Bolton Arena hostsits first ever international wheelchair tennis event, the Arena Indoor ITF 2.The ITF Futures Series Sheffield Wheelchair Tennis Tournament will have NECWheelchair Tennis Tour status for the second year in a row in March, whileanother new addition to the calendar is the ITF Futures Sunderland Open inJune. Elsewhere, the Cardiff Wheelchair Tennis Tournament retains its ITFFutures Series status in October. Once again, one of the highlights of thesummer will be the Wimbledon Wheelchair Doubles Event, in which new Britishwomen’s No. 1 Jordanne Whiley was a finalist this year.

“Following on from the success of the London 2012 Paralympicsthe Tennis Foundation is very excited to be bringing world class wheelchairtennis back to Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park from 2014 and the NEC WheelchairTennis Masters will be a fitting finale to what will be another landmark yearfor wheelchair tennis in Great Britain,” said Geoff Newton, ExecutiveDirector of the Tennis Foundation.

“The Tennis Foundation is working hard to grow disabilitytennis at all levels from grass roots to elite performance and our major eventsare a key part of this so we hope the public continues to show their support bycoming along to a venue near them to cheer on the players.”