Rio blow for Whiley and McCarroll at British Open

Jordanne Whiley and Marc McCarroll’s Paralympics preparations suffered a dent with doubles defeats at the British Open Wheelchair Tennis Championships in Nottingham.

The Ickenham-based duo were both playing alongside their intended partners for the Rio 2016 games, which start on 9 September.

Whiley and Lucy Shuker – bronze medallists at London 2012 – almost threatened to dethrone Dutch top seeds Jiske Griffioen and Aniek van Koot.

They dropped the first set 6-4 but levelled things up by taking the second 6-2. However, Griffioen and van Koot – who won silver in London – pinched the decided 6-3.

McCarroll and his Rio partner David Phillipson went down narrowly in a final set tie-break against Michael Jeremiasz and Frederic Cattaneo.

With the French pair having doubles gold and silver medals between them from the last two Paralympics, McCarroll and Phillipson were edged out 6-2, 5-7, 7-6 (7-2).