HALESOWEN tennis star Jordanne Whiley clinched her second US Open women’s doubles title with best friend Yui Kamiji of Japan on Sunday after the second seeds defeated Dutch top seeds Marjolein Buis and Diede de Groot 6-3, 6-3.

Whiley and Kamiji earned the initiative to take a 3-1 first set lead and continued to pressurise Buis and De Groot to take the opening set. However, the Dutch duo made a much brighter start to the second set and gained their own 3-1 lead.

But Whiley and Kamiji regained the momentum to close out their 11th Grand Slam doubles title together.

A delighted Whiley said: “It feels like a very different title given the situation we are in, but I think we should be really pleased with what we’ve done and I was really pleased with how we played, particularly in the second set. And it’s really nice to be back on court with Yui, to be honest.

“Yesterday’s semi-final was a much different match and we were pretty relaxed, but I was quite nervous today, purely because we haven’t played Marjolein and Diede as a team that much. But once I got into the match and we got the first set in the bag then I felt a lot better.”

With Whiley able to engage with her family back in Britain thanks to the interactive fans’ screens on Arthur Ashe Stadium, she added: “It was really emotional to see Jackson (Whiley’s son) as I’ve only seen him a few times over FaceTime and I’ve missed him so much. So I really loved that touch we players have been given and he’d written me a little sign, so to be able to share that moment with him and my fiancé Marc was very special.”