After opening up the year with back-to-back finals, it was only a matter of time before Rob Shaw got his hands on his first title of 2025. The victory came in his fourth tournament of the year as Shaw claimed the quad doubles crown at the Georgia Open in early March.
Here is the monthly wheelchair tennis update.
Shaw took a month off after his January trip to Australia and looked refreshed in Rome, Georgia. He and Aussie partner Heath Davidson defeated Francisco Cayulef and Gonzalo Enrique Lazarte in straight sets in the semifinals and then edged out Ahmet Kaplan and Andy Lapthorne 3-6, 6-2, 10-7 to take the title.
It was a successful title defence for Shaw and Davidson, who won the ITF 1 Series event last year. The win a year ago was also the first of the season for the Canadian, who went on to win five quad doubles titles in 2024. Shaw is now up to 29 career ITF quad doubles titles.
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The following week at the ITF Super Series event in Baton Rouge, Florida, Shaw reached the quad doubles semifinals with David Wagner but lost in the semifinals to Davidson and Niels Vink.
Mitch McIntyre also reached a quad doubles semifinal at the ITF 2 Series event in Bolton, United Kingdom. He and partner Andrew Bogdanov came agonizingly close to reaching the final, losing 11-9 in the match tiebreak in the semis to Tomas Masaryk and Diego Perez.
Venos Hits Career-High Ranking
Thomas Venos got his 2025 season underway in March, competing in the men’s division at the same two events as Shaw.
At the Super Series event in Baton Rouge, Venos defeated Maximus Wong in the first round before bowing out in round two to Argentina’s Gustavo Fernandez. Even in defeat, Venos’ second-round appearance at the second-highest level of ITF wheelchair tennis tournaments (below the Grand Slams) allowed him to climb to No. 36 in the rankings, his new career-high.
The first ITF event on Canadian soil, the Premier Racquet Club Wheelchair Classic, will take place next month in Markham, ON.
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