BRITAIN’S Jamie Burdekin is back in the world’s top 10 wheelchair tennis rankings after ending three weeks of back-to-back tournaments in the United States.
Burdekin is world ranked No 8, climbing back inside the world’s top 10 for the first time since May 2010 when the Liverpool-based player was still in the middle of a period of rehabilitation after a wrist operation.
The Beijing Paralympic bronze medallist and London 2012 hopeful started his tournaments Stateside with the first of two victories in the last three weeks over world top 10 opponents after he beat American world No 9 Bryan Barten to reach the semi-finals of the ITF 1 Series Cajun Classic in Louisiana.
Burdekin lost out to world No 4 Nick Taylor, of the United States, in straight sets in the semi-finals in Louisiana, but his progress took him to No 13 in the quad singles world rankings before he then lost out to Dutch world No. 8 Dorrie Timmermans in the first round of the following week’s Pensacola Open.
With last week’s Florida Open being the first tournament of the year to have Super Series status and therefore being one of the top tier of tournaments outside of the Grand Slams, Burdekin started as seventh of the eight seeded players, had a first round bye and then eased past Francois Trawalter 6-0, 6-2 to reach the quarter-finals.
However, better was to come as Burdekin reversed his Cajun Classic loss to Taylor, edging to a 7-5, 6-3 victory over the world No. 4 to gain his best result since returning to competitive action last July.
After returning home this week, Burdekin now faces another challenge in South Africa in two weeks after being selected by the Tennis Foundation to part of the Great Britain team that will bid to win the quad title at the World Team Cup for the second time in three years. After missing last year’s event Burdekin joins up with compatriots Andrew Lapthorne and Peter Norfolk to form the same trio of players that last won the title on home soil in Nottingham in 2009.
