Double joy for Parfitt down under (From Your Local Guardian)

Double joy for Parfitt down under

3:11pm Wednesday 10th February 2010 in

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Kingston's John Parfitt has won back-to-back doubles tournaments in Australia, writes Marshall Thomas.

After ending 2009 just short of a place inside the top 30 of the quad singles world rankings, Parfitt has moved up two places to number 31 since starting his season with tournaments in Melbourne and Sydney.

The 31-year-old began his second full season on the NEC Wheel-chair Tennis Tour with a 6-1 6-0 win over American Pani Herath to reach the semi-finals of the Melbourne Open – an ITF 3 series event taking place just 10 mintues away from the Australian Open.

In the semi-finals. Parfitt lost 3-6 1-6 to fellow Brit and training partner Andrew Lapthorne.

Lapthorne also ended Parfitt’s challenge at the Sydney International Open.

However, Parfitt and Lapthorne, who are training partners at the National Tennis Centre at Roehampton, combined successfully in both Melbourne and Sydney tournaments to reach the both quad doubles finals.

They won in Melbourne, dropping just one game to New Zealand’s Chris Harvey and Peter Martin, before a 6-1 6-2 final victory over Australia’s Matthew Ingram and Japan’s Takahiro Koga.

Sweden’s Johan Andersson and Nick Taylor of the United States, a pair with far greater experience and a string of Paralympic medals, were the only partnership to defeat Parfitt and Lapthorne in Sydney – 6-2 6-3 in the final.