OXFORDSHIRE’S newest sporting star has set a date for her comeback as she awaits the birth of her first child.
Paralympic medallist Jordanne Whiley swapped west London for Steventon last November in a bid to find a half-way point between her parents in Birmingham and partner Marc McCarroll’s family in the north of the capital.
The 25-year-old has been settling in to village life over the past couple of months.
And former player McCarroll has already proved a hit at the White Horse Leisure and Tennis Centre in Abingdon, having led a wheelchair tennis day last year.
Whiley, a ten-time Grand Slam champion, has not hit a ball in anger since clinching her fourth Wimbledon doubles title in July.
The Birmingham-born player, who has brittle bone disease, remarkably won at the All England Club while 11 weeks pregnant.
With her baby due at the beginning of February, Whiley is already thinking about when she will pick up a racket again and has set her sights on a third Games.
The two-time Paralympic bronze medallist said: “I will maybe come back to training around November and play my first tournament at the end of January.
“I’m aiming for Tokyo (in 2020).
“It will be tough, because I will only give myself a year and a bit to qualify and I don’t know how fit I will be as a full-time mum.
“I’m not sure how it will work, but I will just wing it.”
A new training base looks to already be sorted, with Whiley, who will be coached by McCarroll, looking to use the tennis centre in Abingdon.
She said: “Depending on mum commitments and baby sitting, it might be that we practice more in the evenings or four days a week to start off with.
“I will trial things out at the time and see what happens.”
Whiley became the first British tennis player to win all four Grand Slams when she achieved the feat in 2014.
She is also the youngest national women’s singles champion in history, after winning the title at 14.
With the first slam of the year in full swing at the Australian Open and the wheelchair event due to start next Wednesday, you would expect Whiley to be missing the sport.
But she is enjoying her time away from the court.
Whiley said: “I’ve been playing tennis my whole life, since I was three.
“I’ve never led a normal life or known my life without tennis, thinking about it or going to the gym.
“It’s a nice time to be myself and not the athlete version of myself.”
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