By Tara Murray
The world’s best wheelchair tennis players converged on the Hume Tennis and Community Centre last week.
In the lead-up to the Australian Open, the Craigieburn-based centre hosted it’s fifth and biggest Stockland Melbourne Wheelchair Tennis Open.
Hume’s Tim Connelly said the event continues to get better and better each year. “It’s one of the best fields ever in Australia,” he said.
“We’ve got 71 para athletes out here.
“We’ve got all top 10 men and eight of the top 10 women in the open wheelchair.
“In the quad, we’ve got Heath Davidson who plays doubles with Dylan Alcott.
Dylan is the only player out of the top five missing from the quad section.”
Connelly said there were more athletes at the Hume event than the Australian Open, which is limited to eight men and women in the open wheelchair and four in the quad wheelchair events.
It is one of the biggest events in the world for wheelchair tennis.
Second seed Shingo Kunieda from Japan was one of the big drawcards, with the Japanese media following his every move at the event.
The event also includes a junior competition, with a record high 20 athletes competing.
This year they had a camp before the event, to give the children an even greater opportunity to learn.
Connelly said the event was quite unique for the juniors.
“It’s the biggest junior camp ever had in Australia,” he said.
“We had 11 Australians, eight Japanese and one German. It’s different from other events, that the juniors are held at the same stage as the seniors.
“They have aspirations to play against their idols.”
Two Hume athletes were part of the event including Sunbury’s Jin Woodsman and Craigieburn’s Anya Ibarra.
The two have made massive inroads and now have junior world rankings.
In results, Belgium’s number five seed Joachim Gerard took out the men’s singles, beating Great Britain’s Alfie Hewett, in three sets, 4-6, 7-5, 6-3.
In the women’s singles number one seed from Japan Yui Kamiji won in straight sets, beating Great Britain’s Jordanne Whiley, 6-2, 6-4.
There was an upset in the men’s quad singles, with the top two seeds and two of the biggest names at the event, David Wagner and Andy Lapthorne, both missing the final.
Netherlands’ Sam Schroder took the title over his countryman, Niels Vink, 6-3, 6-2.
The two Dutchmen combined for the quad doubles, falling short in the final to Australian Heath Davidson and Wagner, 7-6, 6-3, 12-10.
Davidson and Wagner have faced each other in the last three Australian Open quad doubles finals, with Davidson and Dylan Alcott winning the last two titles.
Australian number one seed Riley Dumsday won the boys event against fellow Australian Saalim Naser while Japan’s Haruka Sahara finished atop the round robin competition in the girls event.
