Lucy Shuker

  • Born: 28.05.80
  • Plays: Right-handed, women’s division
  • Lives: Fleet, Hampshire (Trains: Taunton, Somerset)
  • Career Titles (singles): 21
  • Career Titles (doubles): 49
  • Coach: Natalie Ayton
  • Highest Ranking: 5 (March 2013)
  • Twitter: @lucy_shuker
  • Website: www.lucyshuker.com (link opens in new window)
  • Current rankings and activity (link opens in new window)

A former Hampshire County badminton player, Lucy was injured in a motorbike accident at the age of 21 and was introduced to wheelchair tennis whilst at Salisbury Spinal Unit. She has been the British women’s No. 1 for much of the last six years and is currently British No. 2. She became National Singles champion in 2006 and 2009 and has reached five Grand Slam women’s doubles finals, at Wimbledon in 2009, 2010 and 2012 and the Australian Open in 2010 and 2013. She was also a women’s singles semi-finalist at the French Open at Roland Garros in 2007.

She helped GB to the women's final of the 2009 ITF World Team Cup for the first in the event's history, a result that Shuker and Great Britain repeated in 2013 and 2014, again finishing as runners-up to the Netherlands. Lucy won her first ITF 1 title at the Belgian Open in 2010, during a season in which she beat world top ten ranked opponents on eight occasions. Her biggest win came at the season ending NEC Wheelchair Tennis Masters, where she beat the world No.4. Lucy subsequently ended 2010 with a career best women’s doubles world ranking of No. 4. In 2011 Lucy won two singles titles and three doubles titles.

In 2012 she partnered Jordanne Whiley to win the women’s doubles gold medal at the Eton Manor International, the Test Event for the London 2012 Paralympics. Lucy was selected for her second successive Paralympic Games in London, where she and Jordanne made history when winning bronze in the women’s doubles to claim Great Britain’s first Paralympic women’s wheelchair tennis medal.

Lucy and Jordanne also reached their first Grand Slam final together at Wimbledon and Lucy ended the season with seven doubles titles. She also won four singles titles and reached the first Super Singles final of her career at the USTA Championships, whilst qualifying for the NEC Wheelchair Tennis Masters for the third time and helping Great Britain to win the women’s bronze medal at the World Team Cup.

She started 2013 by reaching her first Australian Open women’s singles semi-final and her second Australian Open women’s doubles final in January. After seeing her singles ranking improve to a career best No. 5 in March, in April Lucy won back-to-back women's doubles titles in South Africa, including her first career Super Series doubles title at the South African Open. 

In May she claimed a silver medal as part of GB's women's team at the 2013 World Team Cup in Turkey before qualifying for Roland Garros for the fourth time in June. Lucy was a finalist in the women's singles at July's Swiss Open. She made her US Open Grand Slam debut in September and then finished runner-up to Whiley at the PTR Championships in the USA, where she also won the doubles with Whiley. The duo also won the women's doubles at the Nottingham Indoor, where Lucy was a singles semi-finalist after beating world No. 5 Marjolein Buis. She then completed her 2013 international season by partnering Buis to finish fourth in the Doubles Masters in California. In December Lucy became British women's champion for the third time.

In January 2014 she began the season by winning her second career Super Series doubles title at the Sydney International Open before beating two top 10 ranked opponents en route to the women’s singles final at the Melbourne Open and then contesting her fourth Australian Open Grand Slam in the last six years. Lucy partnered Whiley to win the women's doubles at the USN Bolton Arena Indoor, where she also beat Whiley in the singles semi-finals en route to finishing runner-up to Dutch top seed Aniek van Koot. In March she finished runner-up in back-to-back ITF 1 Series doubles finals in the USA and won her second successive Gauteng Open ITF 1 Series doubles title in South Africa in April.

Lucy helped Great Britain to the women's final at the BNP Paribas World Team Cup for the third time since 2009 at the start of June, giving Britain the lead in the final against top seeds the Netherlands before GB won a third silver medal. A successful summer has also eeen her partner Whiley to Super Series doubles finals at the French Open and the British Open before winning the women's doubles with Dutchwoman Marjolein Buis and finishing singles runner-up to Buis at the Trofeo della Mole. Lucy won the women's consolation singles at the USTA Championships at the end of August before winning back-to-back  ITF 2 singles titles at the Canadian Classic  and PTR Championships in September. Lucy also won ITF 1 doubles titles at the Open de la Baie de Somme in October and the Nottingham Indoor in November and completed her season by winning the women's singles at the ITF 2 Prague Cup Czech Indoor at the end of November.

Lucy started 2015 by winning two ITF 2 doubles titles in three weeks with South Africa's Kgothastso Montjane at the Queensland Open and the Melbourne Open in Australia, where she also beat fellow world top 10 ranked players Katharina Kruger and Marjolein Buis. Most recently, Lucy partnered Whiley to retain the women's doubles title at the USN Bolton Arena Indoor and they also win the Pensacola Open together in March. Lucy returned from the USA with two ITF 1 doubles titles after victory at the Cajun Classic, too.

A doubles finalist at the Japan Open in May, Lucy was subsequently a member of Great Brtiain's bronze medal-winning women's team at the 2015 BNP Paribas World Team Cup in Turkey and went straight from Turkey to win three of four events at the Korea Open and the Daegu Open. She will make her seventh successive women's doubles apperance at Wimbledon.

Biography up-to-date as of July 2015

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Players on the Tennis Foundation's Wheelchair Tennis Performance Programme are supported by UK Sport funding.