TAUNTON tennis player Lucy Shuker reached her third Australian Open women's doubles final - and her first since 2013 - but was pipped to the title in Tuesday's match.

The former Ash Priors resident was a runner-up in Melbourne in 2010 and 2013, and her hopes of going one better alongside doubles partner Kgothatso Montjane were dashed by Diede de Groot and Aniek van Koot.

Shuker began her Australian Open Wheelchair Championships campaign with a quarter-final exit in the women's singles, as she lost out 6-2 6-2 against Momoko Ohtani of Japan.

And so the 40-year-old's attention switched to the doubles, as she and South African partner Montjane took on Colombia's Angelica Bernal and Chile's Macarena Cabrillana for a place in the final.

Shuker and Montjane breezed through the first set, winning it 6-1, but they blew a 4-0 lead in the second set to be pegged back to 4-4.

Bernal and Cabrillana could not complete the comeback, however, as the last two games went to Shuker and Montjane - meaning they were through to Tuesday's final.

The Dutch pairing of De Groot and Van Koot proved too strong for them, though, winning 6-4 6-1 to claim the title.

Shuker - a former Hampshire county badminton player - was introduced to wheelchair tennis after being injured in a motorcycle accident at the age of 21.

She trained at Taunton Tennis Centre, Blackbrook, before going on to win bronze medals for Great Britain at the London 2012 and Rio 2016 Paralympic Games.

Shuker has also reached the final of the women’s doubles at Wimbledon four times - in 2009, 2010, 2012 and 2018.