Whiley happy with Wimbledon draw (From Halesowen News)

Whiley happy with Wimbledon draw

10:00am Thursday 5th July 2012 in Sport

HALESOWEN’S Jordanne Whiley is hoping to reach her first Grand Slam final this weekend when she pairs up with fellow Brit Lucy Shuker for their second successive women’s wheelchair tennis-doubles event at Wimbledon.

Whiley and Shuker have been drawn against second seeds Annick Sevenans of Belgium and Sharon Walraven of the Netherlands for Friday’s semi-finals and Whiley is confident they have the ability to win the contest after she and her partner narrowly missed out on a place in last weekend’s women’s doubles final at the BNP Paribas French Open in Antony, Paris.

“With only four pairings and as the wild card entries we would have got the top seeds or the second seeds, so we’ve got to be happy with the draw, especially as we’ve already beaten Annick and Sharon this year, when we won our first ITF One Series title together at the Atlanta Open in May,” said Whiley.

The British duo will hope for a better outcome than they had in France when, as second seeds, they reached the semi-finals of the fourth Super Series tournament of the year after coming from behind to beat Maria Antonieta Ortiz of Chile and Christine Schoenn of France 2-6, 6-1, 6-4.

Whiley and Shuker then won 11 of the first 13 games against fourth seeds Kgothatso Montjane of South Africa and Sevenans, but at 5-2 up in the second set and with two match points they faced strong resistance from their opponents and eventually bowed out 0-6, 7-6(2), 6-4.

“We were playing some great tennis, but at the crucial time they served themselves out of trouble and with none of us wanting to make any mistakes in a tense final set there were lots of moon balls and they got the break they needed,” said Whiley, who also lost out to world number four Sabine Ellerbrock of Germany in the second round of the women’s singles.

“Going forward, we need to take the positives from what was a good performance for more than a set and a half in France and we’ve got a few days of specific doubles training on grass this week before Saturday’s semi-final at Wimbledon to build our confidence on another new surface.

“I found the grass slower than expected last year and that was the first time I'd ever played on grass, but I know what to expect this year and am really looking forward to my second Wimbledon.”