ANDY LAPTHORNE SEALS ROTHESAY INTERNATIONAL EASTBOURNE QUAD TITLE AS DIEDE DE GROOT RETAINS WOMEN’S TITLE AND ADDS DOUBLES

 World No.8 Andy Lapthorne beat Greg Slade 6-2, 6-0 to lift the quad singles title on Saturday’s third and last day of wheelchair tennis action at the LTA’s Rothesay International Eastbourne, while world No.1 Diede de Groot retained the women’s singles title and added victory in the women’s doubles.

 Lapthorne, who won the equivalent ITF 2 title last year, when the quad singles draw was hosted at the Rothesay Classic Birmingham, eased to his third career win in three matches against British No.2 Slade.

 With Lapthorne and Slade now heading to The Championships, Wimbledon, 2019 Wimbledon singles finalist and two-time doubles champion Lapthorne, said: 

 “I served well, not so much on first serve, but on second serve and that gave me a lot of confidence. It’s great to win another title - my third of the year in singles and my fourth overall, so that’s one of my most successful starts to a season in my whole career. I have to take confidence from that and can look forward to Wimbledon now, knowing that I know how to play on the grass again and I need to use that confidence to drive me forward.”   

 World No.1 De Groot had to come from 2-0 down in the second set of the women’s singles final against her fellow Dutchwoman and doubles partner Jiske Griffioen, but the top seed soon regained control to wrap up a 6-3, 6-3 victory and extend her ongoing winning streak in singles competition to 108 matches.

 De Groot and Griffioen later paired up to win the women’s doubles title as British No.1 Lucy Shuker finished runner-up in the event for the second year in a row. The Dutch duo withstood a strong challenge from Shuker and China’s Zhenzhen Zhu to prevail 6-3, 6-3.

 Lapthorne, Slade and Shuker will now be among five Brits on the LTA’s Wheelchair Tennis Performance Pathway contesting the wheelchair tennis events at Wimbledon from 12-16 July. The wheelchair tennis draw is scheduled to take place at the All England Club on Monday, 10 July.

 For further news and Rothesay International Eastbourne updates, head to lta.org.uk or keep up to date with all the action on Twitter @the_LTA or @WChairTennisGB.

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 For LTA media enquiries please contact:

Media@lta.org.uk

Marshall.Thomas@lta.org.uk

Photo Credits: Getty Images

ABOUT THE LTA:

The LTA is the National Governing Body of tennis for Great Britain. We are here to govern and grow tennis, from grassroots participation through to the professional game. Our vision is “Tennis Opened Up” and we’re on a mission to grow tennis by making it relevant, accessible, welcoming and enjoyable.  We work with schools, with volunteers, with coaches and with venues across the whole country. We also represent the interests of over 1,000,000 Members, men and women, girls and boys, playing on more than 23,000 courts. The LTA runs and supports a network of 11,500 approved tournaments for players of all ages, the four corner-stones of which are the premier grass-court events leading up to The Championships, Wimbledon: the Rothesay Open Nottingham, the Rothesay Classic Birmingham, the cinch Championships (at The Queen’s Club, London) and the Rothesay International Eastbourne.  For further information about the LTA and tennis in Britain, visit www.lta.org.uk or follow us on Twitter @the_LTA.

Marshall Thomas​

LTA

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