Shuker makes winning start at Doubles Masters
Date published :
27 Nov 2009 - 09:48:28
British No 1 and Wimbledon Women's Wheelchair Doubles finalist Lucy Shuker made a winning start to her bid to reach a third Camozzi Doubles Masters final in Palazzolo, Italy, on Wednesday. Somerset-based Shuker and Australia's Daniela di Toro, who were runners-up in the inaugural Wimbledon Women's Wheelchair Doubles in early July, beat Warwickshire's Jordanne Whiley and her Dutch partner Marjolein Buis 6-4, 6-1 in the first of three round-robin pool matches.
After Shuker and Whiley, Britain's top two ranked women's players, went head-to-head on the opening day of competition, Thursday's second day of action will see Shuker and di Toro play Dutch top seeds Korie Homan and Esther Vergeer in an exact rematch of the Wimbledon final.
Meanwhile, Whiley and Buis take on the second Dutch pairing in the line-up, Jiske Griffioen and Aniek van Koot. Homan and Vergeer then await Doubles Masters debutantes Whiley and Buis in Friday's final set of round-robin matches.
The top two partnerships after the pool phase will go forward to the final at the weekend. Shuker is bidding for a place in her third final with her third different partner in the prestigious event for the world's leading doubles players on the NEC Wheelchair Tennis Tour.
Whilst four partnerships contest the women's doubles, eight partnerships contest the men's doubles, initially lining up in two round-robin groups of four teams, with British men's No 1 Gordon Reid making his Camozzi Doubles Masters debut partnering Hungary's Laszlo Farkas.
Eighteen-year-old Reid, from Helensburgh, Scotland, and Farkas, will hope to register their first win on Thursday as they take on a French partnership for the second time in successive days.
Reid and Farkas lost out 3-6, 1-6 to Frederic Cattaneo and Nicolas Peifer on Wednesday and now take on Frederic Cazeaudumec and David Dalmasso. In their final pool match on Friday, Reid and Farkas will play Dutch second seed Maikel Scheffers and Ronald Vink, having finished as runners-up to Scheffers and Vink in the men's doubles at last month's Nottingham Indoor.
