Greg Slade and Lucy Shuker joined Alfie Hewett and Gordon Reid in progressing to doubles semi-finals on Tuesday’s first day of wheelchair tennis action at the US Open, with Andy Lapthorne narrowly missing out on joining Slade in the last four of the quad doubles.
All five Brits now start their singles campaigns on Wednesday in New York.
Wimbledon quad doubles finalist Slade not only made a winning US Open debut, he and his 16-year-old Australian partner Jin Woodman also secured a thrilling victory in their first match together, defeating former French Open and Wimbledon finalists Heath Davidson of Australia and Robert Shaw of Canada 6-1, 6-7(6), (10-7) in a deciding match tie-break.
British No.2 Slade was complimentary of his younger partner as they set up a meeting with top seeds and reigning French Open and Wimbledon champions Niels Vink and Guy Sasson after being 5-1 down in the deciding match tie-break. Slade said: “I’m delighted and relieved to have come through that and it was a very solid performance, especially from Jin in those key moments. Perhaps the novelty factor on our part (playing together for the first time) was an advantage in that first set. We played very, very well and they weren’t sure what to do.
“I was gutted not to win the second set tie-break and then Jin showed some real maturity when we were down (5-1 in the match tie-break) and we got it done, somehow. I’ve got a lot of doubles experience on big stages under my belt and I know what I need to do to get through.”
British No.1 Shuker partnered Jiske Griffioen of the Netherlands to a 6-2, 6-0 women’s doubles victory over the USA’s Maylee Phelps and Saki Takamuro of Japan, setting up a semi-final against Chinese second seeds Li Xiaohui and Ziying Wang.
Shuker, a nine-time Grand Slam doubles finalist and three-time Paralympic doubles medallist, said: “Our communication’s really good and our games complement each other. She reads the game so well and is a former (Paralympic) gold medallist in singles and doubles. It’s not just about hitting hard balls, it’s also about putting the ball in uncomfortable positions and I think we did that pretty well.
Five-time US Open men’s doubles champions Hewett and Reid needed just 51 minutes to beat American duo Charlie Cooper and Conner Stroud 6-0, 6-1 and set up a semi-final against Stephane Houdet of France and Japan’s Takuya Miki.
Four-time US Open men’s singles champion Hewett plays Cooper in his opening singles match on Wednesday, when Reid faces Spain’s Daniel Caverzaschi.
Lapthorne is a two-time US Open quad doubles champion alongside the USA’s David Wagner, but narrowly missed out on making it a full house of quarter-final wins for the Brits on Tuesday, when he and Wagner were edged out 6-3, 5-7, (12-10) by South American duo Francisco Cayulef and Enrique Lazarte.
With thanks to the LTA
