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Norfolk misses out as Wagner calls the tune
May 28, 2009
TWO-TIME Paralympic gold medallist Peter Norfolk saw his bid for a 16th wheelchair tennis major end in defeat last weekend.
The Hampshire man — he lives in Alton and used to base his training at the Aldershot Tennis Centre — lost his quad singles final against American David Wagner in straight sets at the Japan Open in Fukuoka.
World No 1 ranked quad player Norfolk — whose business, EPC Wheelchiars, has been going strong in Farnborough for 20 years — took Wagner to a first set tiebreak at the first ITF Super Series event of 2009, as he went in search of his fourth Japan Open title in six years.
However, the American, so long Norfolk’s chief rival at the top of the sport, dominated the second set as Norfolk struggled to find his form and Wagner successfully defended his title with an ultimately comfortable 7-6(4), 6-0 victory in the Far East.
Despite the loss, Norfolk's world No 1 ranking remains in tact, although Wagner will close the gap at the top of the world quad singles rankings published by the International Tennis Federation.
Wagner, who at 35 is Norfolk’s junior by 14 years, also reduces Norfolk’s advantage in career head-to-heads to 22-14.
Norfolk had been out to avenge defeat by Wagner in last year's Japan Open final, although Norfolk did win the title when the pair met in the 2004 final.
Norfolk had been looking to return home to Britain with a brace of titles, having partnered Canada's Sarah Hunter to beat that man Wagner and his fellow American Bryan Barten 7-6(4), 6-2 in Friday's quad doubles final at the ITF Super Series event in Fukuoka.
Norfolk and Hunter, the second seeds, came from a set point down to upset the top seeded pairing 7-6, 6-3.
Earlier, Norfolk had beaten his doubles partner and third seed Sarah Hunter 6-2, 6-3 in Thursday's singles semi-finals. Norfolk improved his career record against world No 7 Hunter to 13 wins and just two losses.
Norfolk had squeezed past Japan’s Sadahiro Kimura and China’s Taipei's Tzu-Hsuan Huang in their doubles semi-final, 6-0, 5-7, 1-0(4), needing a deciding tie-break for victory. Norfolk had beaten Kimura 6-1, 6-0 in the quarter-finals of his singles event, at the same stage at which he had beaten Kimura on the way to his gold medal in Beijing.
Norfolk had seen off Norihiko Yamamoto, also of Japan, 6-2, 6-0 in Fukuoka. “It was a solid start to the week,” said Norfolk after the victory.
“It’s always a challenge coming out to the Asia tournaments as you never know the standard of player you can meet.
“He was a good left hander with some tricky spin and a good player to test me and get the tournament under way.”
Norfolk and Hunter dropped just two games in their quarter-final on Wednesday.
The second seeds beat Sweden’s Anders Hard and Marc McLean of the United States 6-2, 6-0 as they made serene progress into the last four of the competition.
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