TENNIS: WIRRAL'S wheelchair tennis team are looking to serve up a successful set of prizes from the British Open Championships.

Starting today in Nottingham tennis centre, the 14th Open championships will see five players from the Bidston centre take to the courts.

Leading the way will be former world number one Mark Eccleston in the Quad draw, who will be up against recently crowned French Open Quad champion Peter Norfolk in a field that features the world's top 11 ranked players.

Eccleston and Norfolk recently helped Marsh Team GB reach a third consecutive Quad final at the Invacare World Team Cup, the Davis and Fed Cups of wheelchair tennis, in Poland.

Among their chief opposition in Nottingham will be defending champion Nobuhiro Tachibana, who defeated Eccleston in three nail-biting sets in last year's British Open final when the Briton was suffering from stomach problems and dehydration.

Meanwhile, current world number one David Wagner of the United States, a losing quarter-finalist to Eccleston last year, should start favourite after sweeping all before him so far this year.

Other Wirral players taking part include Jamie Burdekin in the quad second draw and Debbie Thomas, who will play in the women's main draw where world number two Maaike Smit of the Netherlands will be among nine of the world's top 10 players providing the strongest challenge to world number one and Sydney Paralympic gold medallist Esther Vergeer.

Di Toro created shock waves in the women's game in January this year when she ended Vergeer's two-and-ahalf year unbeaten run that had stretched back to the final of the 2000 British Open, when Vergeer was beaten by fellow Dutchwoman Sonja Peters. World number three Peters, runner-up in last year's British Open, will also be in the field again this year.

As well as Thomas, Britain's Janet McMorran (Bromyard, Herefordshire & Worcestershire), Kimberly Blake (Newport Pagnell, Buckinghamshire) and Kay Forshaw (Solihull, Warwickshire) - all of whom are ranked within the world's top 25 - will head the British challenge.

Theresa Dunn goes in the women's second draw while in the men's second draw doubles, Mike Marsden will be playing.

The 14th British Open is one of just three tournaments on the NEC Wheelchair Tennis Tour to have Super Series status, the equivalent of a Grand Slam.

As a Super Series event, the British Open carries the most world ranking points available in any tournament on the NEC Tour.

This is sure to inspire some exciting tennis again this year, as players are seeking to improve their rankings to earn themselves selection for the 2004 Athens Paralympics.

For the first time ever, two junior competitions will run alongside the main events. An international junior event takes place during the second half of the week and an all-British Junior event, contested by many players who have progressed through a series of NEC Wheelchair Tennis Junior Camps in recent years, will also take place over the finals weekend of July 26-27.

Tournament director Lynn Parker said: "The quest for world ranking points always produces the highest quality tennis for the crowds at the British Open, but with the prospect of the Athens Paralympics now just over a year away, the intensity of competition will be turned up just that little bit higher in Nottingham this year."

The 14th British Open begins on Tuesday July 22, with the finals on Sunday July 27. Play begins at 10am each day and entry is FREE to all spectators.