Shaw ends season on a high with title double in Prague

WHEELCHAIR tennis star James Shaw completed his 2020 season in fine style by winning both the quad singles and quad doubles titles at the Prague Cup Czech Indoor.

The 25-year-old Loughboroughbased world No.19 beat fellow Brit and top seed Antony Cotterill 6-2, 4-6, 6-1 in the quad singles final.

He then partnered Cotterill to make it two wins from two roundrobin matches in the quad doubles event.

Shaw, left, from Ruddington, Nottinghamshire, is part of the LTA’s Wheelchair Tennis World Class Programme and second seed Shaw trains with coach Martyn Whait at

Loughborough Tennis Club.

He started his quad singles campaign with a first round bye before defeating Turkey’s Ugur Altinel 6-4, 6-3 in the semi-finals of the ITF 3 event.

Shaw said: “The way things have gone this year it’s so satisfying to win two titles to finish the year off.

“I’m super-happy as I didn’t even know if this tournament would happen or if I would be able to compete, just because of the logistics of lockdown and getting here.

“The organisers in Prague have done an outstanding job.”

Victory over world No.17 Cotterill brought Shaw his fourth international career singles title and his first since May 2018.

He added: “Coming into this week I didn’t know how I would do because there a lot of good competitors here and anyone in the draw could potentially have won it, so to have the mental strength to be able to come though some close matches is huge.”

Shaw and Cotterill began their quad doubles campaign with a tense 4-6, 6-4 (10-7) victory over Altinel and Germany’s Marcus Laudan.

They secured the title after easing past fellow Brits Richard Green and Greg Slade 6-0, 6-4.

Shaw, who also won the Arizona Open quad doubles title in March, his last tournament before the first lockdown was announced, said: “My serve and return have been very good this week and that’s one of the most important things in wheelchair tennis.

“If you start the point well then it puts you on the front foot and if I can keep doing more of that then I can start challenging the top 10 players and hopefully qualify for the Paralympic Games, which has always been my goal.”