Shuker defeat ends British interest at Australian Open

Lucy Shuker nearly pulled off an upset in the wheelchair tennis women’s doubles but ultimately fell to a narrow defeat to end British interest at the Australian Open.

Shuker teamed up with South Africa’s Kgothatso Montjane to face second seeds Marjolein Buis and Sabine Ellerbrock in the semi-finals and won the first set before eventually being edged out in the match tie-break.

Two-time Paralympic bronze medallist Shuker and Montjane went down 2-6 6-1 10-7 to the Dutch-German pairing, who will now face top seeds Diede de Groot and Aniek van Koot in the final.

The 38-year-old Brit had lost in the quarter-finals of the women’s singles to top seed De Groot earlier in the week, while Alfie Hewett and Gordon Reid both suffered defeat at the same stage of the men’s singles draw before also losing their men’s doubles semi-final.

Andy Lapthorne was GB’s other remaining representative in Melbourne but he withdrew from his final round-robin match in the quad singles against home favourite Dylan Alcott, having already been eliminated thanks to a pair of losses.