Wimbledon 2010: Former Wheelchair Doubles Champions Return

Former Wimbledon wheelchair doubles winners Stephane Houdet of France and Japan’s Shingo Kunieda will team up together for this year’s event.

The experienced pair, who started playing together earlier this year, have already triumphed at the Australian Open and Roland Garros.

Esther Vergeer, who was part of last year’s winning pairing, leads the field for the ladies’ doubles event

Lucy Shuker will be Britain’s sole representative in the competition.

Shuker will again team up with Australian Daniela di Toro in a bid to go one better than last year where they lost to Vergeer and Korie Homan in the inaugural ladies’ final.

Houdet won last year’s men’s doubles title with compatriot Michael Jeremiasz while Kunieda, the world number one in singles, triumphed at SW19 in 2006 with fellow countryman Satoshi Saida.

Two-time winner Robin Ammerlaan of the Netherlands will pair up for the first time at Wimbeldon with Sweden’s Stefan Olsson after the pair lost to Houdet and Kunieda in Paris.

They will face a difficult task from the all-Dutch pairing of Maikel Scheffers and Ronald Vink, himself another former two-time winner, and the all-French team of Nicolas Peifer and Frederic Cattaneo.

Vergeer has been the dominant figure in wheelchair tennis for many years with a unbeaten singles record of 386 matches.

Now coached by Sven Groeneveld, who formerly worked with Ana Ivanovic, she will team up with Sharon Walraven who she also partnered in Paris after returning from a six-month break from the sport

Also competing will be Aniek van Koot, who has won at the Australian Open and Roland Garros this year with two different partners, di Toro and Florence Alix-Gravellier of France, who both return to Wimbledon.

Van Koot partners Belgian Annick Sevenans while Alix-Gravellier will play with Jiske Griffioen of the Netherlands.

The semi-final draw will take place on Wednesday 30 June with the games to be played from 2-4 July.