British juniors make bright start in Sunderland
British juniors Josh Steels and Alfie Hewett reached their first senior men's main draw singles quarter-finals in a world ranking event on Thursday after making the most of decent first round draws at the North East Wheelchair Tennis Tournament in Sunderland.
The opening day of action at Britain's second NEC Wheelchair Tennis Tour event of 2010 saw 17-year-old Steels and 12-year-old Hewett each secure 6-3, 6-3 wins over fellow Britons and comparative newcomers Stephen Cox and Keith Thom respectively, but they now face much tougher tasks against the top two seeds in Friday's quarter-finals.
Devon's Steels will play top seed and British No 2 David Phillipson in the last eight, with Norfolk's Hewett coming up against British No 3 Marc McCarroll after Phillipson and McCarroll both had first round byes.
Beijing Paralympian and fourth seed Kevin Simpson was the other Briton to book a quarter-final spot at the ITF 3 Series event after easing to a 6-0, 6-0 win over Berkshire's Anthony Carter. Scot Simpson joined Denmark's Christopher Holmer and Sweden's Dan Wallin in posting 6-0, 6-0 first round victories, while Denmark's Kenneth Kammersgaard faces Simpson in the quarter-finals after winning the day's only three set match against Lancashire's Tony Knappett.
Lancashire's Anna Tarkowski and South Wales-based Debbie Brazier won Thursday's only two women's singles matches to move in to the semi-finals.
Tarkowski, the winner of last month's North West Challenge, Britain's first event on the 2010 NEC Tour, beat Shropshire's Val Fisher 6-0, 6-2 to earn her place in the last four against Somerset's British No 1 and top seed Lucy Shuker. Meanwhile, Brazier beat Cambridgeshire's Laura Coteman 6-1, 6-1 and goes on to face French second seed Arlette Racineux in the semi-finals. Both Shuker and Racineux had first round byes.