 David Hall is a dominant figure in the game |
The world's top wheelchair tennis players will be travelling to Nottingham this week for the 14th British Open which starts on Tuesday. The tournament is one of just three on the NEC Wheelchair Tennis Tour to have Super Series status, the equivalent of a Grand Slam.
The Super Series events carry the most world ranking points which is vital with players bidding to improve their rankings to earn qualification for the Athens Paralympics.
Reigning champions David Hall of Australia, Esther Vergeer of the Netherlands and Nobuhiro Tachibana of Japan are all returning to defend their titles.
Hall, the world number one and reigning Paralympic and World Champion heads seven of the world's top 10 players in the men's main draw singles.
He will face strong opposition from world number two Robin Ammerlaan of the Netherlands, who lost to Hall in three sets in last year's final.
 Mistry has been in good form recently |
World number four Satoshi Saida of Japan has two victories over Ammerlaan this year and took the first set off Hall in the final of the recent French Open to show that he is another live threat.
Leading the British challenge will be Jayant Mistry, the world number 10 who was beaten twice by Hall in the space of a couple of weeks in France and Holland.
Mistry will team up with Robin Ammerlaan to bid for a third successive men's doubles title.
Also among the chief domestic hopes are Kevin Plowman, Matt Faucher and Simon Hatt.
In the ladies draw, former British Open champion Daniela Di Toro of Australia and world number two Maaike Smit of the Netherlands will be hoping to challenge Vergeer, the world number one and Sydney Paralympic gold medallist.
 Esther Vergeer will be defending her title in Nottingham |
Di Toro ended Vergeer's two and a half year unbeaten run in January.
Britain's top three players Janet McMorran, Kimberley Blake and Kay Forshaw, who are all ranked in the world's top 25, will all be hoping to make an impact on home soil.
The best hopes of British success could come in the quad competition where former world number one Mark Eccleston and French Open champion Peter Norfolk take part.
Eccleston and Norfolk recently helped Marsh Team GB reach a third consecutive Quad final at the Invacare World Team Cup, the Davis and Fed Cups of wheelchair tennis, in Poland.
Among their chief opposition in Nottingham will be defending champion and new world number one Tachibana, who defeated Eccleston in last year's British Open final and David Wagner of the United States.
MMIX
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