Britons reach Sydney finals

Britain's Andrew Lapthorne, John Parfitt and Lucy Shuker will contest three finals between them this weekend at the Sydney International, the first ITF 1 Series event of the 2010 NEC Wheelchair Tennis Tour.  Lapthorne and Parfitt remain on course for honours in the quad singles and quad doubles, while Shuker will contest the women's doubles final.

Lapthorne secured his second career victory over Swedish world No 3 and Beijing Paralympic silver medallist Johan Andersson in Friday's quad singles semi-finals, coming from 5-1 down in the second set to record a 6-3, 7-5 victory.  The 19-year-old Middlesex-based world No 9 will now contest his first final on Sunday at ITF 1 Series level, the next tier down from Grand Slam and Super Series events on the NEC Wheelchair Tennis Tour.

Lapthorne takes on American world No 4 Nick Taylor in the final, with the Briton bidding to beat Taylor for the first time after their one and only previous meeting went to three sets last summer.

In the quad doubles, Lapthorne and his training partner John Parfitt eased through Friday's semi-finals with a 6-0, 6-2 victory over Australia's Matthew Ingram and Takahiro Koga of Japan.  They will play tops seeds Andersson and Taylor in the final.

Meanwhile, British women's No 1 Shuker and her Australian partner Daniela di Toro earned a 6-0, 6-3 victory over New Zealand duo Jacqui Courtier and Tiffiney Perry in the women's double semi-finals.  Top seeds Shuker and di Toro will play Florence Gravellier of France and Aniek van Koot of the Netherlands in the final, when they will hope to reverse last week's loss to Gravellier and van Koot in the women's doubles final at the Australian Open.