Whiley scoops bronze in Seoul (From Dudley News)

Whiley scoops bronze in Seoul

10:00am Saturday 2nd June 2012 in Sport

HALESOWEN wheelchair tennis ace Jordanne Whiley helped Great Britain take bronze at the BNP Paribas World Team Cup.

Both Whiley and team-mate Lucy Shuker beat higher ranked opponents as Britain recorded a 2-0 win over second seeds Germany in last Friday’s bronze medal play-off in Seoul.

Whiley, who recently dropped to British number two after Shuker regained top spot, won two of her four singles matches during the week.

After starting with a 2-6, 6-4, 6-4 loss to American Kaitlyn Verfuerth, Whiley partnered Shuker to win the crucial deciding doubles rubber against Verfuerth and Mackenzie Soldan 6-4, 7-5, as Great Britain opened with a 2-1 victory over the USA.

Whiley dropped only one game to Spain’s Elena Jacinto as fourth seeds Britain finished top of Group D after the round-robin phase in the 12 nation competition.

But she was only able to take two games off world number four Jiske Griffioen in the semi-finals as the top seeds and defending champions the Netherlands beat Great Britain 3-0.

However, world number 13 Whiley finished her week on a high after defeating world number 12 Katharina Kruger 6-3, 6-4 to give Britain the advantage in the bronze medal play-off.

Shuker then defeated world number five Sabine Ellerbrock to seal the bronze medal.

Whiley said: “We’re very happy to come away with a bronze medal.

“It was a tough draw in the latter stages of the competition and for me and Lucy to both beat opponents ranked higher than us is very satisfying.

“We came in as fourth seeds and are going home with another bronze medal and the only team to have beaten us is the Netherlands, who’ve won their 25th women’s title, so I think that speaks for itself.

“It maybe wasn’t our best performance against the Dutch team.

“However, they’ve got three of the world’s top four players and we did our best on the day.”