Greg Slade completes Bolton Indoor double at the ITF 3 event
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Greg Slade completed the Bolton Indoor ITF 3 Wheelchair Tennis Tournament as both quad singles and doubles champion for the second year in a row.
British No.2 and Paris 2024 Paralympic silver medallist Slade won three out of four titles in Bolton 12 months ago and he beat fellow Brit Oliver Cox 6-3, 6-2 in Monday’s quad singles final to begin his quest to win the singles and doubles titles at both tournaments this year.
Also partnering the USA’s former three-time Paralympic gold medallist David Wagner to win Tuesday’s quad doubles final 6-2, 6-0, Slade said: “I love playing here in Bolton, I always do well here and it feels good to have got it done. There’s always some ranking points pressure when you’re trying to defend a title and it’s the first time I’ve actually retained a singles title, so it’s not something I’ve experienced before. It’s the best preparation you can ask for (ahead of the ITF 2 tournament) and hopefully I can repeat the results.”
For Cox, it had already been a special few days before reaching his first ITF 3 level singles final, having defeated former world No.1 Wagner in the quarter-finals.
Both Brits are now part of the entry for the quad draw of the ITF 2 tournament, in which Slade reached the singles quarter-finals in 2024, and they will again line up alongside the likes of 2022 champion Wagner, one of three former world No. 1 players competing in Bolton across the ITF 2 men’s, women’s and quad singles draws, and who is among players from 19 countries vying for the titles on offer.
Alongside Wagner, Dutchman Maikel Scheffers, who completed the ITF 3 men’s singles and doubles title double on Tuesday, and Frenchman Stephane Houdet will be competing. Paris 2024 Paralympians Ben Bartram and Dahnon Ward, stars of the LTA’s Beyond The Baseline documentary series in 2023 and 2024, respectively, are among the leading Brits in the men’s singles and doubles draws.
Former ITF 3 and ITF 2 champion and three-time Paralympic medallist Lucy Shuker heads the British entry in the women’s singles, for which Israel’s Maayan Zikri and Pauline Deroulede of France are also leading title contenders after contesting Tuesday’s ITF 3 women’s singles final. Zikri took the title with a 6-4, 6-4 win over the fourth seed.
