Scheffers, Vergeer, Norfolk triumph at the Australian Open

Written by: Staff on 30th January 2012

Scheffers, Vergeer, Norfolk triumph at the Australian Open

epa03081562 Esther Vergeer (R) and Sharon Walraven of Netherlands in action against compatriots Aniek Van Koot and Marjolein Buis during their women's wheelchair doubles final match at the Australian Open Grand Slam tennis tournament in Melbourne, Australia, 27 January 2012. EPA/HOW HWEE YOUNG |

(Curtesy of the ITF – original at itftennis.com)

Maikel Scheffers, Esther Vergeer, and Peter Norfolk won the men’s, women’s and quad singles titles respectively at the Australian Open Wheelchair Championships, a part of the NEC Wheelchair Tennis Tour.

Scheffers followed up on his breakthrough 2011 season – which saw him named ITF Wheelchair World Champion – by clinching his second Grand Slam title. The Dutchman came from a set down to defeat world No. 5 Nicolas Peifer 36 76 60, who had ended Stephane Houdet’s hopes of a third successive Australian Open final in the semifinals.

“I’m more happy when I finish it in two sets, but it’s my mentality and I fight for it” said a delighted Scheffers. “I lost three times the first set (this week), but I won the match.”

World No. 1 Vergeer and world No. 2 Aniek can Koot reached the all-Dutch women’s final in straight sets before Vergeer won her ninth Australian Open title 60 60, having dropped just four games throughout the tournament to extend her remarkable winning streak to 444 matches.

“I’ve been playing her for the last couple of weeks in the tournaments I’ve played, so I knew exactly what I wanted to do,” said Vergeer. “She wanted to play hard, she wanted to play with a lot of pressure and I just worked on keeping the ball back and it worked out.”

The round-robin stage of the quad singles ended with David Wagner, Peter Norfolk and Noam Gershony all on two wins apiece, but it was Wagner and Norfolk who would contest a sixth Australian Open final, with the Brit world No. 2 coming out ontop466462.

“I struggled for a while out there to find my game but I love the pressure of playing in a major final and I knew if I stuck with it, I could find my rhythm,” Norfolk said after winning his fifth Australian Open title.

Dutch second seeds Robin Ammerlaan and Ronald Vink clinched their third Grand Slam men’s doubles title together after beating French top seeds Houdet and Peifer 62 46 61, while Vergeer and Sharon Walraven won their seventh successive women’s doubles Grand Slam title 64 63 against fellow Dutchwomen Marjolein Buis and van Koot. Norfolk and fellow Briton Andrew Lapthorne retained the quad doubles title, beating Gershony and Wagner 64 62.