By Tom Degun

September 2 - Two-time Paralympic champion Peter Norfolk made a winning return to competitive quad wheelchair tennis as he stormed past fellow Briton Jamie Burdekin in straight sets at the USTA Wheelchair Tennis Championships in St Louis, Missouri to book a place in the last eight.



The 49-year-old world number two - nicknamed the "Quadfather" - who was playing his first match since April after becoming a father for the second time in July, beat his Beijing 2008 Paralympic Games bronze medal-winning doubles partner Burdekin 6-3 7-6 in the fifth and final Super Series tournament of the year.

Norfolk, who has amassed a collection of 17 major titles in the sport, will now face American seventh seed Bryan Barten in the quarter-finals.

He will be joined by Britain's 19-year-old Andrew Lapthorne, who had won the first set of his match against Takashi Nagaoka before the Japanese athlete retired injured.

Lapthorne now faces a very tough task in the next round as he plays American world number four Nick Taylor.

Elsewhere, it was a bad day for Britain as British number one David Phillipson fell 7-6 6-3 to Sweden’s Stefan Olsson, British number two Gordon Reid went down 6-3 6-3 to Ronald Vink of the Netherlands and British number three Marc McCarroll was beaten 6-4 6-0 by Stephan Houdet of France in the men’s singles. 

 In the women’s singles there was further bad news for Britain as Lucy Shuker and Jordanne Whiley also saw their campaigns come to an end despite good efforts against top ten ranked Dutch players. 

Shuker slipped to a 6-4 6-3 loss against world number two Sharon Walraven while Whiley put in a gutsy performance before going down 6-4 6-2 to world number seven Jiske Griffioen.

However, Shuker and Whiley will go head-to-head in women’s doubles semi-finals after Whiley partnered American Dana Mathewson to a 6-4, 6-4 victory over Germany’s Katharina Kruger and Yuko Okabe of Japan and top seeds Shuker and Daniela di Toro of Australia had a bye. 

Meanwhile, Norfolk will partner Lapthorne to take on Burdekin and Australia’s Matthew Ingram in the quad doubles quarter-finals after Burdekin and Ingram beat Americans Pani Herath and Francois Trawalter 6-2 6-0.  

McCarroll and Reid are also into the men’s doubles quarter-finals after defeating Canadian duo Eric Gilbert and Yann Matthieu 6-0 6-2. 

The British duo now face second seeds Houdet and Olsson.

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September 2010:
 British players make fine start to USTA Wheelchair Championships
February 2010: Norfolk coach honoured with prestigious award
January 2010: Norfolk lifts four Australian Open for fourth time