British players fill five of Saturday's eight semi-final berths across the men's and women's main draw singles events after the first day of the North West Challenge at South Ribble Tennis Centre, Britain's first world ranking event on the 2011 NEC Wheelchair Tennis Tour.
Friday's first day of play at the ITF Futures Series tournament in Preston saw the four seeded players in the men's main draw singles each survive two matches apiece as Kevin Simpson, Alex Jewitt and Ade Adepitan joined Swedish top seed Dan Wallin in the last four.
Third seed and reigning National champion Jewitt fought back from a set down to beat 2009 North West Challenge runner-up Kevin Plowman in the pick of the day's matches 2-6, 7-5, 6-2. Jewitt went on to beat young Dutchman Carlos Anker without dropping a game.
British juniors Dermot Bailey, Alfie Hewett and Josh Steels all made it through the first round before slipping to straight sets defeats against second seed Simpson, Wallin and fourth seed Adepitan respectively. Jewitt, who has reached his third North West Challenge semi-final since 2007, will meet the fast-improving Wallin in the last four, with Adepitan taking on Simpson.
British No 3 Louise Hunt, runner-up at the North West Challenge for the past two years, will face Debbie Thomas in an all-British women's singles semi-final. Thomas beat fourth seed Debbie Brazier 6-1, 3-6, 6-3 en route to reaching her fourth semi-final in five years at South Ribble Tennis Centre.
As in the men's singles, three British junior players won through to the second round of the women's singles, with Lauren Jones and Charlotte Moore reaching the last eight in the top half of the draw. However, after a first round bye, Hunt opened her challenge with a 6-0, 6-0 win over Jones, while Thomas overcame Moore 6-1, 6-1.
Junior Ella Beaumont won through her first round match before bowing out to German third seed Claudia Fornefeld 6-1, 6-1. The women's singles semi-final in the bottom half of the draw features both overseas entrants as Fornefeld faces French second seed Emile Chene, who followed her first round bye by edging past Britain's Val Fisher 6-4, 6-4.
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