Phillipson edged out in Sunderland final
Nottinghamshire's British No 2 David Phillipson had to be content with runners-up honours for the third year in succession at the North East Wheelchair Tennis Tournament in Sunderland after being edged out in an amazing men's singles final against Swedish third seed Dan Wallin on Sunday at Britain's second world ranking tournament of the year.
Top seed Phillipson went 5-0 up in the third and deciding set and had two match points on the Swede's serve before earning another two match points on his own serve at 5-3 ahead, but Wallin fought back to take the contest 6-0, 1-6, 7-6(2) after a final set tie-break.
"I'm no quite sure how I lost it, it was just one of those days." said Phillipson, who was bidding to remain unbeaten on home soil this season after winning last month's North West Challenge in Preston, Britain's first tournament on the 2010 NEC Wheelchair Tennis Tour. "Dan just came out firing on all cylinders in the first set and was hitting winners all over court. He made more errors in the second, which allowed me to get back in to the match, but it's very frustrating to lose it and I just have to put it down as a bad day, although he's a player who's improving very quickly," added the world No 20, who had beaten Wallin comfortably in straight sets in the semi-finals in Preston at the end of February.
Wallin had also been on the opposite side of the net when Phillipson paired up with fellow Briton Marc McCarroll to win Saturday men's doubles final, earning one of four titles to be won in Sunderland by home players. It was their second doubles title together this season and the fifth doubles title of the year so far for Middlesex's British No 3 McCarroll.
The men's singles was the only title of the week to go overseas after Lucy Shuker and Danny Robbins sealed victory in the women's singles and quad singles events respectively on Saturday.
British women's No 1 Shuker, the women's singles champion in Sunderland in 2008 before finishing runner-up last year, justified top seeding as she regained the ITF 3 Series title after a comfortable 6-3, 6-2 victory over vastly experienced French second seed Arlette Racineux in her final.
"It's always good to get your first title of the season under your belt, although it wasn't as tough an entry as in recent years," said the Somerset-based world No 11. "After I returned from Australia in February I picked up a new chair and this was my first tournament in it after some good training in the last few weeks. It's brought a new dimension to my game, gives me extra stability and allows me to get more power into my shots. Arlette's a good player, she's been playing for a long time and is very wily, but I played solidly and served a stack of aces. I can now look forward to my three tournaments in the USA in April."
In the quad singles, Oxfordshire's Robbins secured his second career title after winning both his scheduled round-robin matches against fellow Britons Liam O'Reilly and John Parfitt in straight sets.
Robbins reversed a three set loss to Parfitt in the final of the North West Challenge in Preston to win their Sunderland contest 6-1, 6-3, dropping just two games to O'Reilly in his other match.
Shuker clinched her second title of the week in the women's doubles, partnering Lancashire's Anna Tarkowski. Shuker and Tarkowski dropped just one game in the second set of both their round-robin matches, with Cambridgeshire's Laura Coteman and Racineux taking runners-up honours.
