LUCY Shuker hit a season’s best performance in the USA after the Ash Priors wheelchair tennis star beat world No.3 Aniek van Koot of the Netherlands to reach one final, before narrowly missing out on a second in back-to-back ITF 1 Series tournaments.

With just two months to go until the end of the ranking qualification window for the Rio Paralympics Shuker began her tour with comfortable straight sets wins over Chile’s Maria Diaz and American Dana Mathewson at the Pensacola Open before the world No.7 dug deep for a 7-6(3), 7-5 win over London 2012 women’s singles silver medallist van Koot.

However, with bad weather resulting in a short turnaround between the semi-finals and the final Shuker eventually left Florida with runners-up honours after a 6-2, 7-5 loss to Dutch world No.6 Marjolein Buis

“It was a really good result for me. Since returning from Australia I've been working on some specific areas of my game which I feel paid off in all my matches,” said Shuker, one of six players on the Tennis Foundation’s Wheelchair Tennis World Class Programme to challenge for titles in the USA. “There were some tough conditions to deal with in Pensacola - strong winds and lots of rain delays but it was a great result to beat the World No.3 in the semi-finals. It was quite a gruelling match and with only an hour or so break between the semi and Final it was tough to continue the good form.”

Shuker recovered to begin the Cajun Classic in Baton Rouge in dominant fashion, beating American Shelby Baron 6-0, 6-0. The British fourth seed then held an early 3-1 lead in the first set of her quarter-final again world N0.9 Diede de Groot of the Netherlands before rain again intervened and play was suspended.

When Shuker came out on Saturday to resume the match she faced a strong challenge from de Groot, but was more than equal to the challenge and sealed their quarter-final 6-3, 3-6, 7-5 to set up another semi-final against top seed van Koot. But with little more than an hour between matches again, van Koot had the edge to book her place in the final 7-6, 6-1.

“In some respects it’s been a challenging couple of weeks with the weather. I had my chances against Aniek in Baton Rouge, coming back from 1-5 down in the first set, but after a hard three sets in the morning I just ran out of steam,” said Shuker.

“However, all in all I’m very happy with my tennis on this tour and hopefully I can take this form onwards to Rio.”