Field Announced for 2015 U.S. Open Wheelchair Competition
The USTA has announced the field for the 2015 U.S. Open Wheelchair Competition. The event, in its ninth year, will be held Sept. 10-13, at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in Flushing, N.Y.
The 2015 U.S. Open Wheelchair Competition will feature a Men’s, Women’s and Quad Division, and will include six events: Men’s Singles, Men’s Doubles, Women’s Singles, Women’s Doubles, Quad Singles and Quad Doubles. Wheelchair tennis follows the same rules as able-bodied tennis, except that the ball can bounce twice.
This year’s field will feature 17 of the top 20 wheelchair tennis athletes from around the globe, including the top seven men, top seven women and top three quads. One wild card also will be awarded for each event. Players were selected based on their ITF rankings as of July 27. The total purse for the event will be $180,000.
| Men | Ranking |
| Shingo Kunieda (JPN) | 1 |
| Stéphane Houdet (FRA) | 2 |
| Nicolas Peifer (FRA) | 3 |
| Joachim Gerard (BEL) | 4 |
| Gordon Reid (GBR) | 5 |
| Gustavo Fernandez (ARG) | 6 |
| Maikel Scheffers (NED) | 7 |
| Michaël Jérémiasz (FRA) | 12 (WC) |
| Women | Ranking |
| Jiske Griffioen (NED) | 1 |
| Aniek van Koot (NED) | 2 |
| Yui Kamiji (JPN) | 3 |
| Sabine Ellerbrock (GER) | 4 |
| Jordanne Whiley (GBR) | 5 |
| Marjolein Buis (NED) | 6 |
| Lucy Shuker (GBR) | 7 |
| Kaitlyn Verfuerth (USA) | 18 (WC) |
| Quad | Ranking |
| David Wagner (USA) | 1 |
| Dylan Alcott (AUS) | 2 |
| Andy Lapthorne (GBR) | 3 |
| Nick Taylor (USA) | 17 (WC) |
In the women’s field, top seed Jiske Griffioen of the Netherlands, will look to claim her first U.S. Open Wheelchair Competition title after becoming the number one player in the world in June for the first time in her career. Defending singles and doubles champion Yui Kamiji of Japan, will look to win her second consecutive title at the event. Competing for the first time since 2006 in the field will be 29-year-old American Kaitlyn Verfuerth.
On the men’s side, world number one Shingo Kunieda, also of Japan, will look to win his sixth U.S. Open Wheelchair Competition singles title since 2007. Up and comer Gustavo Fernandez of Argentina will be looking to win the title after losing to Kuneida in the final last year.
The United States will be represented by the three-time Paralympic Quad doubles gold medalistsDavid Wagner (Chula Vista, Calif.) and Nick Taylor (Wichita, Kan.) in the quad singles and doubles division. Wagner will be looking to win his third US Open Wheelchair Competition quad singles title, last winning in 2011 and losing to Great Britain’s Andrew Lapthorne in the 2014 final. In doubles, Wagner and Taylor will look to continue their dominance in the event by putting their names on the trophy for a seventh time. They are the only team ever to win the Quad doubles title.
The USTA was officially designated by the USOC as the national governing body for the Paralympic sport of wheelchair tennis in June 2002, becoming the first Olympic national governing body to earn this recognition. As the national governing body for wheelchair tennis, the USTA manages wheelchair tennis in the United States, including the development of local programming, the sanctioning of tournaments, overseeing wheelchair rankings, creating and managing a High Performance program for developing elite disabled athletes, and selecting teams to compete internationally for the United States.
