HALESOWEN tennis champion Jordanne Whiley says she will be back on court in July as the coronavirus lockdown eases.

It six years since Jordanne Whiley secured the second leg of a unique achievement in British tennis, claiming the first of two French Open titles at Roland Garros with close friend and regular doubles partner Yui Kamiji of Japan.

The coronavirus pandemic means Whiley is unable to try and repeat that success this week with Kamiji, the British No.1 has been making the most of time at home, planning for the future and continuing training with support from the LTA, the national governing body of tennis in Britain.

Whiley is still the only Brit to have won a calendar year Grand Slam in any discipline after she and Kamiji won the women’s doubles wheelchair titles at the Australian Open, Roland Garros, Wimbledon and the US Open in 2014. A tenth Grand Slam title together at the Australian Open in January – their first since Whiley became a mum - sparked the possibility of repeating their historic 2014 success again.

Current world No. 5 Whiley said: “The last time I played at Roland Garros in 2017 I had just found out I was pregnant with Jackson and I’ve worked hard to get back to automatic qualification for the Grand Slams, so it’s a real shame. I said to Yui after Australia, ‘Shall we try and get the calendar Slam again?’. I was definitely confident we could do it, so we’ll just have to wait and see if we get the chance to do it next year.”

While the French Open has rescheduled its dates, now aiming to take place in September, starting a week later after the US Open is still currently scheduled to end, Wimbledon has been cancelled, along with the LTA’s British Open Wheelchair Championships in Nottingham. Of the four majors, Whiley is in no doubt about which she will miss the most.

She said: “Wimbledon’s my favourite tournament of the year. It’s my home Grand Slam, me and Yui have had so much success there with four titles in a row and Marc and I got engaged there last year, so it’s such a special place to us all and it will be strange not to be there again this year.”

Although the easing of lockdown restriction means that players are now able return to court while adhering to LTA guidelines on safe play, Whiley is not planning to return to on-court training until July.

She says:“I train at the White Horse Leisure and Tennis Centre in Abingdon and as a multi-purpose facility it’s not open yet, but I’ve still been training at home six days a week. The LTA have been great I’ve had regular contact with them, I had a set of wheelchair rollers sent to me early in lockdown and an FK Pro suspended bodyweight system that goes over the door, so I could do push ups, pull ups and exercises like that.

“But the one thing that’s been most beneficial is the one-to-one online access to our LTA strength and conditioning coach Alex Cockram and LTA physio Sam. They take me through regular shoulder maintenance sessions, and it helps massively to be able to do that together. I’ve also been able to get out on my own hand bike in all the nice weather. We live on a great housing development so I can get outside on the hand bike, sometimes with Jackson, and that’s been great.”

While two-time Paralympic doubles bronze medallist Whiley remains firmly focused on her goal of winning a Paralympic medal in singles competition in Tokyo in 2021, the rescheduling of dates has had an impact on personal plans that she and her fiancé, former Paralympian Marc McCarroll, had in place.

Whiley says:“As of now our wedding’s still going ahead as normal in November, we’ve not been told otherwise, so I’ve been getting on with things like making wedding favours during lockdown. Yui’s supposed to be my chief bridesmaid but having her here is going to depend on travel restrictions, so we’re going to have to see on that one, but I dearly want her by my side.

“Then there’s childcare. I hadn’t originally planned for childcare for Jackson for another year. Even though Jackson is in nursery for almost another year, next April he’ll be going to pre-school, which is different hours, so that means I’m only going to be able to train during those hours.

“While I should have been at Roland Garros this week, one good thing is that Marc is back to work this week. He’s the LTA’s Wheelchair Tennis Performance and Talent Coach and has been on furlough, but he’s now back so that he can resume working with our junior players.”