Aniek van Koot to headline Bolton wheelchair tennis event

More than 60 players from 13 countries are due to line up for Great Britain’s second ITF Wheelchair Tennis Tour event of the year.

Five London 2012 Paralympic Games medallists, including the Netherlands’ Aniek van Koot and Great Britain’s Andy Lapthorne and Gordon Reid, are among the nine world top-10 ranked singles players set to contest the inaugural USN Bolton Arena Indoor Wheelchair Tennis Tournament from 19-22 February.

More than 60 players from 13 countries are due to line up for Great Britain’s second ITF Wheelchair Tennis Tour event of the year.

Van Koot is set to make her seasonal reappearance in Bolton after the London 2012 women’s singles and doubles silver medallist and 2013 Australian Open and US Open champion was forced to end her 2013 season in the autumn due to injury. She still ended the year as the world No. 1 ranked player, a position she kept until after not being able to defend her Australian Open title last month.

The ITF 2 Series USN Bolton Arena Indoor will also have Great Britain’s top three ranked players head the entries for the men’s singles. They include world No. 3 Gordon Reid, who started 2014 in fine form by winning his first Super Series title of his career at the Sydney International Open in January before going on to reach his second Grand Slam doubles final at the Australian Open.

British No. 2 Marc McCarroll and world No. 1 ranked junior Alfie Hewett, who won his third successive Cruyff Foundation Junior Masters singles and doubles titles at the end of January, boost the home challenge. Frenchmen Thomas Vinatier and Yoann Quilliou and Hungary’s Laszlo Farkas head the top ranked overseas players, who also include London 2012 men’s doubles gold medallist and former world No. 2 Stefan Olsson of Sweden.

Whiley recently became the first British woman to win a Grand Slam wheelchair tennis title after being victorious in the women’s doubles at the Australian Open. The world No. 6 and world No. 8 Shuker, bronze medallists together In the women’s doubles at London 2012, are among four world top 10 ranked women’s players among the entries in Bolton, alongside current world No. 4 and 2013 ITF Wheelchair World Champion van Koot as well as Germany’s world No. 10 Katharina Kruger.

Whiley was one of two Brits to win Grand Slam titles at the Australian Open as world No. 3 Lapthorne claimed his third quad doubles title and the London 2012 silver medallist will make his first competitive appearance since his success at Melbourne Park. Lapthorne is one of three world top-10 ranked Brits in the field for the quad singles, alongside world No. 7 Antony Cotterill and world No. 8 Jamie Burdekin. Italy’s world No. 9 Antonio Raffaele and Sweden’s Anders Hard are likely to provide the chief overseas challenge to the top three ranked Brits.