Shuker into French Open semi-finals
Lucy Shuker beat her second world top 10 ranked opponent in successive days on Thursday as she reached the first ITF Super Series women's singles semi-final of her career at the French Open Wheelchair Tennis Championships in Paris.
The British No 1 and world No 13 defeated world No 10 Katharina Kruger of Germany 6-1, 6-3 to follow up Wednesday's three set victory over Dutch world No 6 Aniek van Koot. Shuker will now play top seed and world No. 4 Sharon Walraven of the Netherlands on Saturday as she enters the last four for the first time at a Super Series event, the most important tier of wheelchair tennis tournament outside of the Grand Slams.
However, Shuker, who bids to reach the final of the women's wheelchair doubles at Wimbledon next week, saw her women's doubles challenge in Paris come to an end in the semi-finals, as did British No 2 Jordanne Whiley. Shuker and her French partner Christine Schoenn lost out 3-6, 1-6 to Dutch second seeds Jiske Griffioen and Walraven, with Whiley and Kruger slipping to a 0-6, 4-6 loss to top seeds Daniela di Toro of Australia and an Koot.
Britain's Andrew Lapthorne progressed to Friday's quad singles quarter-finals after a comfortable 6-2 6-1 victory over Italy's Marco Innocenti. World No 8 and sixth seed Lapthorne now plays second seed Johan Andersson of Sweden in the last eight as the two players meet for the third time this season, having each one one of the two matches they have contested since January.
John Parfitt made a fine effort in his quad singles second round match, taking Dutch world No 6 Dorrie Timmermans to three sets, but experience eventually won the day as Timmermans secured a 6-3, 3-6, 6-1 victory. Meanwhile, Adam Field also pushed Canada's world No 5 Sarah Hunter in many of the games they played in their second round match, but third seed Hunter won the points that mattered to prevail 6-2, 6-3.
Later in the day Lapthorne and Parfitt put up another promising effort in their quad doubles quarter-final, taking a 3-1 second set lead against second seeds Andersson and Hunter before experience again won the day as Andersson and Hunter sealed a 6-4, 6-3 victory.