With the start of next week's British Open Wheelchair Tennis Championships in Nottingham now just four days away, Britain's top two women, Lucy Shuker and Jordanne Whiley, secured career best singles and doubles victories against Dutch opposition on Friday at the Swiss Open in Geneva.
Shuker booked her place in Saturday's women's singles semi-finals after her first victory in eight attempts against world No. 6 Sharon Walraven before later pairing up with British No. 2 Whiley to defeat top seeds Marjolein Buis and Walraven to reach the women's doubles final.
Jamie Burdekin and John Parfitt added to the British success in Geneva by also reaching Saturday's quad doubles final in just their second tournament as a partnership.
Playing in just her third singles event of 2011 after recovering from injury, world No 8 Shuker upset third seed Walraven 6-3, 3-6, 6-3 to reach the Swiss Open semi-finals for the second successive year. Fifth seed Shuker will take on German sixth seed Sabine Ellerbrock in Saturday's semi-finals.
Whiley's bid to reach the semi-finals ended in a 2-6, 3-6 loss to Belgian fourth seed Annick Sevenans, but she had more to celebrate later in the day as she and Shuker battled their way to a first ever win over a world top ten Dutch doubles partnership. The British third seeds beat Buis and Walraven 7-6(3), 7-6(6) and take on German second seeds Ellerbrock and Katharina Kruger in Saturday's final.
In the quad doubles second seeds Burdekin and Parfitt won their semi-final against Japan's Shota Kawano and Antonio Raffaele of Italy 6-3, 7-5. They will also play their final on Saturday when they face Canada's Sarah Hunter and David Wagner of the United States.
Earlier in the day Burdekin will take on world No 1 Wagner in the quad singles semi-finals.
British interest in the men's main draw singles came to an end on the fourth day of the ITF 1 Series tournament when Gordon Reid lost 3-6, 1-6 to French world No 3 Stephane Houdet.
Meanwhile British No 4 Alex Jewitt, who lost out to Reid in Tuesday's first round, made progress in the men's consolation singles when he beat Japan's Mamoru Iwata 6-1, 6-2. Jewitt faces rising Japanese star Takashi Sanada in Saturday's consolation semi-finals.
While Shuker and Whiley enjoyed victories in Switzerland, British women's No 3 Louise Hunt made singles and doubles progress on Friday in the Bavarian Open in Germany. Second seed for the women's singles, Hunt defeated Spain's Elena Jacinto 7-6(5), 6-2 to reach Saturday's semi-finals, in which she will face Germany's Bianca Osterer.
Hunt also partnered Australia's Janel Manns to the semi-finals of the women's doubles, the second seeds overcoming Emilie Chene of France and Jacinto 7-6(7), 6-1. Hunt and Manns face Austrian duo Henriett Koosz and Waltraud Posch in the last four.
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