Canada’s No. 1 ranked wheelchair tennis player Rob Shaw is back to his winning ways, this time defeating Korea’s Kyu-Seung Kim, 6-0, 6-2 to claim his fifth title of the year at the Seoul, Korea Open.
As one of the tournament’s top seeds, Shaw was awarded a bye in the first round to move onto the quarter-finals where he faced Korea’s Deok- Gy Kim, in a clean sweep of 6-0, 6-0 to move onto the semi-final round, where he defeated his opponent Ho Sang Wang 6-0, 6-0.
As a result of his efforts, the North Bay native will move up to a career-high ITF ranking of No. 7 on Monday and will also secure a first-time spot in the Top 8 Masters event in the Netherlands later this year. He becomes the first Canadian wheelchair player to qualify for a Masters event since Sarah Hunter, former world No. 2, in 2004.
The soon-to-be world No. 7 was able to overcome some adversity in his final match to claim this prestigious position in Canada’s history, admitting he was battling through some injury in the clinching set.
“I’m really satisfied with how I played today,” said Shaw. “I had to battle through some minor injuries in the second set but still managed to play some good tennis.”
Shaw has a total of five titles in 2022 on both clay and hard surfaces. He claimed his first 2022 title back in June at the Israel Open after being in a drought since 2019. Since the Israel Open, he has won the 32nd German Open Berlin, Janco Steel Wheelchair Tennis Classic, and the Saint-Hyacinthe International Open.
