Brits hunt titles in Florida and South Africa
British players will contest at least four finals this weekend at the Florida Open in Boca Raton and the South African Open in Johannesburg after another fruitful day of NEC Wheelchair Tennis Tour action across two continents.
Hampshire's Peter Norfolk and Middlesex's Andrew Lapthorne will contest the quad doubles final at the Florida Open, the first of this season's Super Series events, after they continued their title defence in Boca Raton with a second victory in successive years over American top seeds and reigning Paralympic champions Nick Taylor and David Wagner.
Meanwhile, final berths are also assured for Britain's Louise Hunt, Laura Coteman and Adam Field at the South African Open.
World No 1 Norfolk will bid to secure his place in another final on Saturday in Boca Raton when he takes on Swedish fourth seed Johan Andersson. While Norfolk continued his bid for a sixth Florida Open title with a 6-1, 6-4 victory over Canadian fifth seed Sarah Hunter in his quarter-final, Andersson thwarted hopes of an all-British semi-final line-up as he beat Lapthorne 7-6, 6-0, avenging defeat by the Briton in last year's quarter-finals.
Lapthorne and Norfolk opened up clear advantages early in both sets of their quad doubles semi-final against Taylor and Wagner and held off comebacks by the Americans in both sets to prevail 6-3, 6-4. The British third seeds now play second seeds Andersson and Hunter in the final.
After each reaching their first quarter-finals at Super Series level, Nottinghamshire's David Phillipson and Warwickshire's Jordanne Whiley both saw their respective men's singles and women's singles bids come to an end on Friday.
A landmark week in Phillipson's career came to an end at the hands of Dutch world No 4 Robin Ammerlaan, who won their quarter-final 6-3, 6-0.
Whiley also exited against Dutch opposition when she slipped to a 2-6, 1-6 loss to world No 7 Jiske Griffioen. Whiley partnered British No 1 Lucy Shuker in the women's doubles semi-finals and the third seeds put in a solid effort against top seeds Florence Gravellier and Sharon Walraven, but the Dutch-French pairing held on for a 7-5, 6-3 victory.
After first round losses in the men's singles, Britain's Gordon Reid and Marc McCarroll carry their consolation singles efforts in to the weekend after comfortable opening wins. British No 1 Reid beat Switzerland's Yann Avanthey 6-0, 6-2, while British No 2 beat American Zach Beaulieu 6-0, 6-3 and they could go head-to-head in Sunday's final if successful in Saturday's semi-finals.
In Johannesburg, second seed Hunt faces South African Kgothatso Montjane for the second time in a week in the women's singles final at the ITF 2 Series South African Open after surviving a difficult opening set en route to beating Celia du Toit 7-6(4), 6-1 in her semi-final.
Wiltshire's Hunt and Cambridgeshire's Coteman will also line-up in the women's doubles final. The only two non-South African women's player in Johannesburg this week, Hunt and Coteman beat Mable Mankgele and Di Colley 6-1, 6-1 in their semi-final and now face top seeds Montjane and Refilwe Mooketsi in the final. Hunt finished runner-up in both the women's singles and women's doubles finals at last week's Border Open in East London.
Field met fellow Briton Antony Cotterill for the second time in successive weeks in the quad singles semi-finals on Johannesburg, with Field gaining revenge for a three set defeat at the Border Open. Friday's contest again went to three sets, Field finishing the stronger this time to prevail 4-6, 6-1, 6-4. The East Sussex player now takes on South African second seed Lucas Sithole in the final.
Cotterill and Field could still be on for their second quad doubles title in successive weeks as they complete their round-robin event over the weekend.