Great Britain men finish fourth at Invacare World Team Cup
Great Britain's men's wheelchair tennis team of Marc McCarroll, David Phillipson and Gordon Reid have joined the women's and junior teams in finishing fourth in their event at the 2010 Invacare World Team Cup in Antalya, Turkey after a 2-1 loss to France on Sunday.
The final tie of the week with Great Britain participation was Sunday's men's World Group 1 third and fourth place play off against the already dethroned 2009 champions and second seeds, with McCarroll giving Britain a 1-0 lead over France.
Competing in his second Invacare World Team Cup for Great Britain, McCarroll earned his first career win over higher ranked Frenchman Frederic Cazeaudumec with a 6-3, 6-3 victory in the opening singles rubber. After helping Britain to reach the semi-finals of the men's event for the first time since 2002, 18-year-old Reid found French world No 2 Stephane Houdet an altogether tougher opponent, with Houdet winning the second singles rubber 6-1, 6-1 to force the deciding doubles.
"It was a good performance, I've taken him to three sets before so it was nice to win in straight sets today, but unfortunately we couldn't do it in the doubles," said McCarroll. "The highlight of the week has to be our doubles win over the Dutch in our semi-final, although it was a dead doubles rubber. They are the reigning Doubles Masters champions and to have come from a set and 5-2 down to win that was great. We couldn't repeat the upset today, but have achieved our seeded position and bettered out fifth place last year."
McCarroll and Reid recovered an early break to level at 2-2 with French reigning Paralympic and Wimbledon champions Houdet and Michael Jeremiasz in the doubles decider, but the experience of the French duo gained the day and they sealed the tie and third place after a 6-2, 6-0 victory.
"We have a young team that is beginning to show great maturity, as demonstrated by the leadership shown by 17- year-old Jordanne Whiley in the ladies squad and the improvement of one place by our men’s team to fourth on the world stage," said Claire Lavers, Team Manager and Director of Disability Tennis for the Tennis Foundation. It’s particularly exciting when the age range of our men’s players is between 18 and 25."
After arriving in Turkey with a mixture of youth, experience and a number of developing players among an 11-strong Great Britain squad contesting four events, three fourth place finishes and a seventh placing for Britain's quad team end a successful week for Britain's wheelchair tennis players that promises much for the future.
"Our two juniors surpassed expectations to equal our fourth position of last year. It was great to see them perform very credibly against far more experienced players and the same applies for all the GB squad out in Turkey," added Lavers. "For our quad team to come seventh when we are missing all three of our top 10 world ranked quad players is another splendid performance."