MARC McCarroll claimed his biggest success of his career when beating fellow Briton Gordon Reid to win the men’s wheelchair singles title at the Queensland Open in Brisbane, the first tournament of the 2010 NEC Wheelchair Tennis Tour.
Later in the day, McCarroll and Reid went on to add the men’s doubles title at the first world ranking tournament of the season, which has been taking place directly alongside the closing stages of the Brisbane International ATP World Tour and WTA Tour events.
With the men’s wheelchair singles final scheduled shortly before the Brisbane International final between Andy Roddick and Radek Stepanek, 24-year-old British No 3 McCarrroll earned his first ever win over British No 1 and world No 17 Reid – and the first ITF 3 Series main draw singles title of his career – as he edged a fascinating final, 7-6, 4-6, 6-4.
McCarroll received the David Johnson Perpetual Trophy from Johnson himself, having beaten the local favourite and a stalwart of the sport in Queensland in Saturday’s semi-finals.
McCarroll started this week’s tournament world ranked No 35, just two places shy of his career high ranking, but is now set to earn a place inside the world’s top 30 for the first time ever after replacing the rankings points he won for reaching the quarter-finals of the 2008 Queensland Open.
McCarroll and 18-year-old Reid went on to take the men’s doubles title as they justified top seeding to beat Australian second seeds Michael Dobbie and Ben Weekes 7-5, 6-3, completing a British clean sweep of the men’s titles.
McCarroll and Reid now move on to the City of Adelaide Open, another ITF 3 Series event, which begins tomorrow.
