Wirral Tennis Centre player Debbie Thomas wins second international title of the season in Martigny, Switzerland

Apr 29 2009 by Our Correspondent, Birkenhead News

WIRRAL Tennis Centre's Jamie Burdekin and Debbie Thomas made waves on the otherside of the Atlantic last week, with Burdekin producing arguably the best week of his career in Pensacola, Florida, while Thomas picked up her second international doubles title of the season in Martigny, Switzerland.

Beijing Paralympic quad doubles bronze medallist Burdekin plays the final leg of a three tournament stint in the United States this week in Baton Rouge and can go in to the ITF 2 Series tournament on the crest of a wave after beating three world ranked top 10 players to reach Saturday's quad singles final at the Pensacola Open in Florida.

The 29-year-old former Marine, from Crosby, secured career first wins over American world No 3 Nick Taylor and Canadian world No 6 Sarah Hunter in the opening two rounds in Pensacola.

The two straight sets victories fulfilled the promise Burdekin had shown at the previous week's Florida Open in Boca Raton, where he slipped to a narrow defeat against fellow Briton and world No 1 Peter Norfolk. That loss had seen Burdekin drop word ranking points after Boca Raton, but he more than made up the deficit in Pensacola and beat Dutch world No 5 Bass Van Erp 3-6, 6-0, 6-0 to reach his first ITF Series final.

Despite a 0-6, 0-6 loss to Beijing Paralympic silver medallist and world No 4 Johan Andersson of Sweden in Saturday's final, Burdekin had more than done enough to ensure that he improves upon his previous career best quad singles ranking of No 9.

Burdekin also partnered Hunter to reach the quad doubles final in Pensacola, but the second seeds were also outdone in the final as American top seeds Taylor and David Wagner earned a 7-5, 6-2 victory.Thomas paired up with Swiss player Parmilla Grangier to win the women's doubles.

The Prenton-based player and her Swiss partner, the top seeds in Martigny, had a first round bye before beating Spain's Elena Jacinto and Nadia Goyeneche 6-1 ,6-3. Thomas and Grangier then eased to a 6-1, 6-1 victory over British duo Debbie Brazier and Anna Tarkowski in the final to claim the honours.

Thomas went to the ITF Futures event intent on reaching the semi-finals of the women's singles and that was exactly what she did after fighting back form the jaws of defeat to beat Frenchwoman Sophie Fraioli 4-6, 7-6(4), 6-3 in her first round match.

The quarter-final was much easier as she beat Germany's Linda Wagemann 6-1, 6-4, but Thomas was unable to find a way past Switzerland's Simona Rusnak-Schmid, who won their semi-final 6-4, 6-3.

For further details about Wirral Tennis Centre's wheelchair tennis sessions, call Dave McIndoe on 07976 474 526 or Wirral Tennis Centre on 0151 608 0397.