Whiley survives early scare to progress at British Open
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Two-time women’s singles champion Jordanne Whiley recovered from a slow start on the second day of the British Open to overcome Japan’s Manami Tanaka 3-6, 6-3, 6-1 and book her place in Thursday quarter-finals.
World No.4 and British No.1 Whiley, who claimed her fifth Wimbledon women’s doubles title and 13th Grand Slam title just two weeks ago, will now play Rio Paralympic champion Jiske Griffioen of the Netherlands.
Third seed Whiley. who claimed her first Super Series singles titles in Nottingham in 2015 and 2016, will be the only Brit in the women’s quarter-finals after Griffioen beat Lucy Shuker to end any hopes of an all-British clash in the last eight.
Two-time British Open champion and Dutch top seed Diede de Groot will begin her bid for a third British Open title with a quarter-final against the USA’s Shelby Baron.
Cornelia Oosthuizen won the only all-British singles contest on the second day of play, defeating 18-year-old Abbie Breakwell 6-0, 6-4 to book a quarter-final against American Dana Mathewson.
Elsewhere, hopes remain of an all-British men’s singles semi-final after Gordon Reid and Alfie Hewett won their opening matches yesterday in straight sets. Fifth seed and two-time British Open singles finalist Reid now plays Belgium’s Joachim Gerard today in a rematch of their recent men’s singles final at Wimbledon, which the Belgian won. Second seed Hewett plays Frenchman Stephane Houdet in his quarter-final.
Gerard is one of five former British Open champions through to the last eight of the men’s singles, with seven-time champion and top seed Shingo Kunieda facing former two-time champion Maikel Scheffers. Scheffers beat French seventh seed Nicolas Peifer 6-4, 7-5 to cause the only upset so far in the men’s singles.
While all but one of the seeded players have advanced to the last eight in the men’s and women’s singles, there was disappointment for five-time British Open quad singles champion Andy Lapthorne.
Second seed Lapthorne made an early exit against world No.6 Koji Sugeno after the Japanese prevailed in two tie-breaks, 7-6(5), 7-6(5) to book a semi-final meeting with 2019 British Open champion and third seed Niels Vink. Vink’s fellow Dutchman and top seed Sam Schroder plays four-time British Open champion David Wagner of the USA in the other semi-final.
