BRITAIN’S top women’s wheelchair tennis player, Lucy Shuker, clinched the biggest title of her career after winning the women’s singles at the Belgian Open Wheelchair Tennis Championships in Namur.
The victory completes a fine week for Shuker, who also secured the women’s doubles title on Friday partnering Dutchwoman Sharon Walraven.
In the women’s singles Shuker beat three players ranked above her in her four matches, defeating current world No 4 and second seed Aniek van Koot of the Netherlands for the second time in six weeks in the quarter-finals.
The unseeded Briton beat world No 11 Katharina Kruger, of Germany, 6-2, 7-5 in the semi-finals and then made a splendid start in the final against third seed and home favourite, Annick Sevenans.
After coming from 3-1 down in the second set, Shuker went on to beat the Belgian world No 8 6-1, 6-4 and land the first ITF 1 Series singles title of her career.
Having started the tournament world ranked No 12, Shuker will now climb back inside the world’s top 10 in next week’s rankings published by the International Tennis Federation.
“I’m on cloud nine at the moment,” said Shuker. “I’m delighted to have beaten three top 11 players and won my first ITF 1 Series title and to have added the doubles title as well make it all even more special.”
In the quad doubles final third seeds Jamie Burdekin and Andrew Lapthorne were unable to secure another British victory and eventually lost out 6-0, 6-3 to Swedish second seeds Johan Andersson and Anders Hard.
Lapthorne had faired best of the Britons in the quad singles, beating Hard to reach the semi-finals before bowing out against world No 3 Andersson, 6-3, 6-3.
In the men’s events, Marc McCarroll and Gordon Reid justified their fourth seeding to reach the semi-finals of the men’s doubles before bowing out to Dutch top seeds and eventual champions Robin Ammerlaan and Maikel Scheffers.
Meanwhile, McCarroll and Reid lost to world No 5 and eventual champion Ammerlaan in the second round and quarter-finals of the men’s singles respectively.
However, Adam Field helped completed another largely successful tournament for British players after winning the quad consolation singles title.
After being beaten by Lapthorne in the first round of the quad main draw earlier in the week, Field went on to win all his consolation singles matches in straight sets, earning a 6-0, 6-1 victory over American former world No 4 David Jordan in the final.
