By Tom Degun

September 4 - Britain’s Peter Norfolk continued his impressive return to competitive action as he claimed a semi-final berth in the quad singles at the USTA Wheelchair Tennis Championships in St Louis with a 6-0, 6-2 victory against American seventh seed Bryan Barten.



In only his second match since April, world number two Norfolk dominated Barten from start to finish and will now bid to extend his unbeaten record against American world number four Nick Taylor at the fifth and final Super Series tournament of the season.

Taylor was taken to three sets for the second time in four matches against Britain’s world number six Andrew Lapthorne in his quad singles quarter-final before prevailed 6-2 2-6 6-3 to set up a meeting with Norfolk. 

A busy day for Norfolk and Lapthorne also saw the duo in action twice in the quad doubles.

The third seeds first beat fellow Briton Jamie Burdekin and Australia’s Matthew Ingram 6-2 6-1 in the quarter-final to progress to a semi-final against top seeds and reigning Paralympic champions Taylor and David Wagner. 

However, despite having two victories over the Americans to their credit in the last two seasons, Lapthorne and Norfolk were just edged out on this occasion as Taylor and Wagner advanced to the final with a 3-6 6-4 6-4 win. 

Britain’s Lucy Shuker gave Britain some better news as she advanced to the women’s doubles final.

British number one Shuker and Australia’s Daniela di Toro, the top seeds in the women’s doubles, reached the final in St Louis for the second successive year after a 6-2 6-2 victory over British number two Jordanne Whiley and American Dana Mathewson in their semi-final match. 

Shuker and di Toro will face Dutch duo Jiske Griffioen and Sharon Walraven in the final.

In the men’s doubles, British number one David Phillipson and his Japanese partner Satoshi Saida narrowly missed out on a place in the quarter-finals after a 5-7 7-6 6-3 loss to French fourth seeds Frederic Cattaneo and Nicolas Peifer. 

Meanwhile, Britain’s Marc McCarroll and Gordon Reid also went down to second seeds Stephane Houdet of France and Stefan Olsson of Sweden by slipping to a 6-1 3-6 6-0 loss in their quarter-final.           

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