Parfitt reaches Swiss Open semi-finals
John Parfitt produced the outstanding British result on Thursday's third day of the Swiss Open Wheelchair Tennis Championships in Geneva as he beat Swedish world No 9 Anders Hard to reach the quad singles semi-finals.
Surrey-based Parfitt came from 4-0 down in the second set to beat Hard 6-4, 6-4 and earn the best win of his career. His reward is a place in his first ITF 1 Series semi-final, in which he will meet Canada's Sarah Hunter on Saturday.
However, Parfitt's training partner Liam O'Reilly was unable to join him in the last four after slipping to a 6-2, 6-0 loss to American world No 7 Bryan Barten.
In the second round of the men's singles, British No 2 Gordon Reid produced an encouraging effort before bowing out to Dutch second seed and world No 4 Maikel Scheffers. The 18-year-old Scot was 5-3 up in the first set and 3-1 up in the second set before Scheffers finally sealed a 7-6(1), 6-3 victory.
British interest in the men's singles ended when Marc McCarroll was also beaten 6-3, 6-1 by Austrian world No 9 Martin Legner, while McCarroll and Reid were unable to repeat their surprise win over reigning Doubles Masters champions Scheffers and Ronald Vink in May's World Team Cup. The Dutch second seeds progressed to the men's doubles semi-finals after a 6-2, 6-2 victory.
Friday's fourth day of play will see Lucy Shuker and Jordanne Whiley, Britain's top two ranked women's players, go head-to-head in the women's singles quarter-finals, while Shuker and her German partner Katharina Kruger are in action in the women's doubles semi-finals. Parfitt will also partner Italy's Antonio Raffaele in the quad doubles semi-finals.