Ash Priors’ world No. 10 ranked wheelchair tennis players Lucy Shuker secured her second win of 2015 over a fellow world top 10 ranked player today at the Melbourne Open after beating Dutch world No. 6 Marjolein Buis to claim a place in the women’s singles semi-finals of the ITF 2 Series event.
The British No. 2’s 4-6, 6-3, 6-0 win over Buis earns Shuker a semi-final on Saturday against Germany’s world No. 4 and second seed Sabine Ellerbrock.
Shuker has also partnered South Africa’s Kgothatso Montjane to a women’s doubles semi-final that features two Brits. Shuker and Montjane will play Shuker’s London 2012 bronze medal-winning partner Jordanne Whiley and Japan’s Yui Kamiji, the top seeds, for a place in Sunday’s women’s doubles final in Melbourne after winning their opening match in Melbourne against Australian duo Janel Manns and Sarah Calati 6-1, 6-2.
“I’m super happy with today’s win over Marjolein,” said Shuker. “It’s the second year in a row I’ve beaten her in the quarter-finals of this tournament and last year I went on to reach the final, so hopefully I can do the same again.”
Shuker is one of six players on the Tennis Foundation’s Wheelchair Tennis Performance Programme starting 2015 in Australia and this week she is in the third of three back-to-back-tournaments. The Taunton-based player beat Germany’s world No. 8 Katharina Kruger two weeks ago to reach the Queensland Open women’s singles final before finishing runner-up to world No. 9 Montjane. Shuker and Montjane also won the women’s doubles in Queensland.