Ruddington’s James Shaw has completed his 2020 season in fine style after winning both the quad singles and quad doubles titles in the Wheelchair Tennis at the Prague Cup Czech Indoor.
The 25-year-old world No.19, who is part of the LTA’s Wheelchair Tennis World Class Programme, beat fellow Brit and top seed Antony Cotterill 6-2, 4-6, 6-1 in the quad singles final before partnering Cotterill to make it two wins from two round-robin matches in the quad doubles event.
Second seed Shaw, who 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, 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 put 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.”
The Czech Republic event was Shaw’s third tournament since the resumption of the UNIQLO Wheelchair Tennis Tour in September and his first since back-to-back tournaments in France ended in early October with Nottinghamshire’s six-time National champion beating Cotterill in the quad consolation singles final at the ITF 1 French Riviera.
“I’m very pleased to get my second successive win over Antony. I’ve not been able to do that and make it back-to-back wins against him previously. It’s always been win one, lose one. The original lockdown definitely gave me an opportunity that I wouldn’t normally get to work on some things. During that period I would have been travelling a lot to try and get the points to qualify for Tokyo'” said James. “So I was able to work on mental strength, incorporating a lot of mindfulness, speaking to my sports psychologist regularly and it also just gave me the opportunity to reflect on why I play tennis and the opportunity to actually miss playing tennis. I’ve been playing for so many years and after a while you don’t realise just how much you enjoy doing something until you can’t play.”
Shaw, who came out of lockdown in the summer feeling stronger than ever, having been able to benefit from training equipment and support provided by the LTA will now be subject to a COVID-19 test on his return to Britain.
On being back in Ruddington he said: “I’ll obviously be isolating until I get my results back and a bit of rest would be great. I don’t really know yet what’s going happen with training as we’re told elite sport can continue. But if it’s a quieter period I can again work on making some really good improvements and prepare for the new season, which will hopefully be full of tournaments and I’ll be able to travel more.
James added: “If I can keep making improvements again, as I feel I did in the previous lockdown, then who knows where I can go next year and beyond that, as I really feel like I’m making big strides at the moment. I just need more tournaments and the opportunity to prove to everyone that I can beat the top players in the world now.”
To find out more about the LTA’s work with disability tennis, you can visit www.lta.org.uk/play
