A silver lining for Jordanne Whiley’s Games

The Halesowen wheelchair tennis star fell to 6-0 6-1 defeat alongside Lucy Shuker at the hands of Dutch duo Diede de Groot and Aniek van Koot in Tokyo.

Having beaten Van Koot to singles bronze late the previous evening, her maiden Paralympic medal flying solo, the doubles denouement was a step too far.

“It wasn’t the performance we wanted but we tried our best and they were too strong,” said Whiley.

“I’m proud we could make the final and improved on our performance.

“I had really tough match on Friday, didn’t get to bed until 2.30am, and that takes a toll.

“I tried absolutely everything I could but I don’t have any regrets and I wouldn’t do anything differently. It’s just the way it swung.

“It was difficult emotionally. Friday was very draining and for lots of reasons it was a very, very proud moment for me, a very big match.

“We were playing for gold so I was up for it, but it was difficult. I had to try my best, it was all I could do and sometimes it wasn’t enough.”

Whiley and Shuker first combined at the Games at Beijing 2008, reaching the quarter-finals with the West Midlands star aged just 16.

They won back-to-back bronze medals at London 2012 and Rio 2016, despite Whiley finding the going tough at the latter .

“Coming in at 16, I was very young and inexperienced,” said Whiley.

“This is a completely different turn of events, I’ve been at the Grand Slams and three other Games.

“Now we’re the strongest we’ve ever been, this was our Games. We didn’t come away with gold but we’ve made a lot of improvements if I looked back five years ago.”

Whiley has been a world-beater on the global circuit with Japanese Yui Kamiji in recent years with the pair winning Wimbledon together in June.

Her future in the sport is down to a matter of days - she expects this month’s US Open to be one of her last tournaments due to the demands of raising son Jackson.

“I’m proud of where we’ve come from,” Whiley reflected on her partnership with Shuker.
“I was in a bad place in Rio which in turn made the partnership not great. To come from that to a place now where we’re on the podium and wanting it so badly for each other, I’m really pleased.”

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