Lucy Shuker and Andy Lapthorne enjoyed a tremendous first day at the Australian Open Wheelchair Championships at Melbourne Park after Shuker reached her first Australian Open women's singles semi-final in three attempts and Lapthorne won the first of his three round-robin quad singles matches.
Shuker made a slow start against former world No. 1 Daniela di Toro of Australia, but after bowing out of the first Grand Slam of the year at the quarter-final stage in both 2010 and 2011, the world No. 7 battled back to take the second set and then came from behind in the final set to complete a 2-6, 6-4, 6-4 victory.
Shuker will now play world No. 4 Sabine Ellerbrock of Germany in Thursday's semi-finals.
"It was a tough match in windy conditions, but I'm very happy to come through to reach the semi-finals here for the first time," said Shuker.
World No.6 Nick Taylor forced second seed Lapthorne into a first set tie-break and looked to have the first set under control as he took a 5-1 lead. But the World No.4 battled back to take the tie-break 7-5 in their quad singles round-robin match.
Lapthorne broke early in the second set against the American and extended his lead to 5-2 after a marathon seventh game of the set before finally completing a 7-6(5), 6-2 victory.
Lapthorne will play another American opponent, world No. 1 David Wagner, in the second of his three round-robin matches on Thursday.
"It wasn't my best tennis today, but a win is a win and I'll look to improve in my next match against David, which is always a tough encounter," said Lapthorne.
Shuker will also start her bid to reach a second Australian Open women's doubles final on Thursday when she pairs up with Marjolein Buis of the Netherlands. Second seeds Shuker and Buis will face Ellerbrock and Sharon Walraven of the Netherlands in their semi-final.
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