Paralympic Gold Medallists Heading to Eton Manor

Paralympic Gold Medallists Heading to Eton Manor Wheelchair Tennis International

Peter Norfolk, British gold medallist from Athens 2004 and Beijing 2008, and Paralympic gold medallist Esther Vergeer from the Netherlands, unbeaten over an incredible 452 singles matches since January 2003, are two of the stars among the entries confirmed for the Eton Manor Wheelchair Tennis International from 3 to 6 May.

(PRWEB) April 21, 2012

Peter Norfolk, British gold medallist from Athens 2004 and Beijing 2008, and Paralympic gold medallist Esther Vergeer from the Netherlands, unbeaten over an incredible 452 singles matches since January 2003, are two of the stars among the entries confirmed for the Eton Manor Wheelchair Tennis International from 3 to 6 May.

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Part of the ITF Wheelchair Tennis circuit and the London Prepares series, the official London 2012 test events, the tournament will give players the chance to compete in the London 2012 venue for Wheelchair Tennis ahead of the Paralympic Games.

The world-class line up for the tournament will feature players from around the world competing in all six Paralympic-featured events: men’s and women’s Singles; men’s and women’s Doubles; Quad Singles; and Quad Doubles.

In the men’s competition, British No1 Gordon Reid will expect strong competition from Robin Ammerlaan of the Netherlands - the Singles gold medallist in Athens 2004 and silver medallist from Beijing 2008.

Esther Vergeer will also be expected to set the standard on behalf of the Netherlands for the women. Vergeer has won Singles gold at the last three Paralympic Games. Britain’s 19 year old No1 Jordanne Whiley will be among those to provide the latest opposition to Vergeer’s unbeaten status in May.

The Quad competition features GB stars Peter Norfolk and Andrew Lapthorne. Peter has won the last two Paralympic Singles gold medals. Andrew is the current world number 4 and recently partnered Peter to the Australian Open Quad Doubles title in January. As well as featuring in the Doubles, they will also compete against each other at Eton Manor.

The tournament will be vital in giving the London Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games (LOCOG) the chance to test its operations including the athlete and wheelchair movements around the venue, the results and scoring systems, and workforce.

The competition lasts for four days and 3,000 tickets have been sold to the public for Saturday 5 May. On the same day four other Olympic venues will be in operation simultaneously as LOCOG test operations with over 70,000 people on the Olympic Park.

The full list of entries can be found here:
http://www.londonpreparesseries.com/wheelchairtennis/whos-competing/index.html

For further information please contact the London 2012 Press Office.

Notes to editors:

Esther Vergeer (NED) – World number 1 since 1999. She already has five Paralympic gold medals and is unbeaten in over 452 singles matches since January 2003, including 20 consecutive Grand Slam singles titles.

Jordanne Whiley (GBR) – Great Britain’s number 1 at just 19 years old. Jordanne is one of the top wheelchair tennis players in the country, following her father who is a wheelchair tennis player and was also an Athletics medallist at the 1984 Paralympics in New York. She became Britain’s youngest ever national wheelchair singles champion when she won the title in 2007, aged just 14. Jordanne made her Paralympic debut in Beijing, where she reached the quarter-finals of the doubles tournament with fellow British player Lucy Shuker.

Peter Norfolk (GBR) - Quad singles champion from Athens and Beijing, won his fifth Australian Open in January. Peter has dominated the Quad classification of wheelchair tennis since it was introduced into the Paralympic programme for the Games in Athens in 2004. This domination earned him the nickname “The Quadfather”. Peter won Britain’s first ever tennis medal at a Paralympic Games by becoming Paralympic Champion in 2004, he retained the title in Beijing in 2008. Peter also helped Great Britain’s medal tally at both Games by also medalling in the doubles.

Andrew Lapthorne (GBR) – Andrew took up wheelchair tennis six years ago. Andrew made his Grand Slam debut at the 2011 Australian Open in Melbourne, where he partnered Norfolk to win the quad doubles, thereby winning his first Grand Slam title. Lapthorne and Norfolk retained the Australian Open title in January this year.

Gordon Reid (GBR) - from Scotland, has beaten the current world number 1 Maikel Scheffers of the Netherlands twice in 2011.

London 2012 Games partners:
The Worldwide Olympic Partners who support the London 2012 Olympic Games and the National Olympic Committees around the world are Coca-Cola, Acer, Atos, Dow, GE, McDonald’s, Omega, Panasonic, Procter and Gamble, Samsung and Visa.

LOCOG has seven domestic Tier One Partners - adidas, BMW, BP, British Airways, BT, EDF and Lloyds TSB. There are seven domestic Tier Two Supporters – Adecco, ArcelorMittal, Cadbury, Cisco, Deloitte, Thomas Cook and UPS. There are now twenty-eight domestic Tier Three Suppliers and Providers – Aggreko, Airwave, Atkins, Boston Consulting Group, CBS Outdoor, Crystal CG, Eurostar, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer LLP, G4S, GSK, Gymnova, Heathrow Airport, Heineken UK, Holiday Inn, John Lewis, McCann Worldgroup, Mondo, NATURE VALLEY, Next, Nielsen, Populous, Rapiscan Systems, Rio Tinto, Technogym, Thames Water, Ticketmaster, Trebor and Westfield.

There is one domestic Tier One Paralympic Games-only Partner, Sainsbury’s and one domestic Tier Three Paralympic Games-only Supplier, Otto Bock. The London 2012 Paralympic Games also acknowledges the support of the National Lottery.