20 years on from making her British Open debut, Lucy Shuker reached her first British Open final. An impressive feat for Britain's highest ranked player and arguably the most disabled woman in the draw.
Lucy's hopes of ending her first British Open Wheelchair Tennis Championships singles final as the champion at Nottingham Tennis Centre however ended in a 6-2 6-3 loss to Dutch top seed Aniek van Koot, who claimed the women’s singles title for the first time after six finals.
Shuker made a confident start to the final with some aggressive play that took her to a 2-0 lead. However, world No.3 Van Koot started to find her range, with her weight of shot forcing Shuker into a number of untimely errors that ultimately resulted in the Dutchwoman winning six games in a row to take the opening set.
Shuker battled hard to establish 2-0 and 3-2 leads in the second set as the British No.1 and world No.7 tried to vary her game to nullify Van Koot’s power. However, having finished runner-up at the British Open in five successive finals between 2012 and 2016, Van Koot was not about to let her sixth opportunity to lift the trophy pass by and after earning two match points she put away one last forehand winner after an hour and six minutes of play.
Despite missing out on silverware, Shuker reflected on her first British Open singles final with fondness as she had nothing but praise for the newly crowned champion, Van Koot.
"I’m really happy to get to the final this week," shared Shuker. "It’s a shame I couldn’t go one further and win but Aniek you were pretty awesome today.
"I’m really happy overall to get to the final, it’s been a good week."