Burdekin’s African adventure leads Great Britain to semis
BLUNDELLSANDS’ Jamie Burdekin enjoyed singles and doubles wins against South Africa to help secure Great Britain a place in this week’s semifinals in the quad event at the BNP Paribas World Team Cup in Tokyo, the International Tennis Federation’s flagship wheelchair tennis event.
World No. 8 Burdekin is aiming to help Great Britain to a third World Team Cup quad title since 2009, having also joined Andy Lapthorne in earning the title in 2014.
Liverpool’s two-time Paralympian defeated Bongani Dlamini 6-3, 6-0 in Britain’s first singles rubber on Tuesday against South Africa before Lapthorne put the tie beyond South Africa’s reach in the second singles rubber.
Burdekin and Lapthorne then teamed up to defeat Dlamini and Danny Mohlamonyane 6-1, 6-0 in the doubles.
Tuesday’s success was Great Britain’s second 3-0 success in successive days after Lapthorne and Antony Cotterill won both singles runners and the doubles on Monday in Britain’s first of three round-robin pool ties against Canada.
Burdekin, Lapthorne and Cotterill are the same trio of Great Britain players selected by the Tennis Foundation that won the quad title in the Netherlands in 2014.
“It’s good to get my first win of the week under my belt and we’re chuffed to win the tie 3-0,” said Burdekin after helping Britain to guarantee a top two finish in their round-robin pool.
Wednesday’s last round-robin tie against Israel will decide which team finishes top of the pool ahead of Thursday’s semi-finals.
“I had a bit of a tough week last week in singles at the Super Series in Japan so I needed that win and it was great for Andy to beat Lucas.
We’ve been bullish about our chances this week because we want to win it; we never want to come second. Winning your third world title has got a nice ring to it, especially in a Paralympic year with all the other players looking at you, it’s nice to give them a warning shot and let them know that we’re there,” he added.
Burdekin and Lapthorne come into this week’s team event boosted by their latest major doubles title together, having beaten the USA’s three-time Para- lympic champions Nick Taylor and David Wagner on Saturday in the final of the Japan Open Super Series in Iizuka.