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Super Shuker reaches doubles final in Melbourne

By Jon Couch
January 24, 2013

FLEET'S wheelchair tennis ace Lucy Shuker will contest her second Australian Open women’s doubles final on Friday in Melbourne, where she also reached her first singles semi-final at the opening Grand Slam of the year this week.

Second seeds Shuker and Marjolein Buis of the Netherlands came from behind in the first set of their doubles semi-final to beat Sabine Ellerbrock of Germany and Sharon Walraven of the Netherlands 7-5, 6-3, giving Shuker a place in her second Australian Open final since 2010.

Shuker and Buis will face Dutch top seeds Jiske Griffioen and Aniek van Koot as Britain's No.1 Shuker, also a former Wimbledon doubles finalist, bids for her first Grand Slam title.

Victory for Shuker in her doubles semi-final gave some recompense for her narrow singles semi-final loss to Ellerbrock.

World No.7 Shuker reached the semis after a stirring recovery to beat Australian world No.8 Daniela di Toro 2-6, 6-4, 6-4 in the first round.

She then put up a fine effort against world No. 4 Ellerbrock in their semi-final, but the German held on to win 7-6, 7-5.

“It’s been a good week so far and I’m really delighted to get the chance to play for my first Grand Slam title,” said Shuker.

“Marjolein and I were finalists at the Sydney International last week in our first tournament together, so hopefully we can go one better this time.”

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