Quad tennis ace Lucas Sithole cruised into the semi-final round of the ITF Sydney Super Open Series event in Australia on Thursday.
But South Africa’s leading women’s wheelchair tennis ace Kgothatso Montjane is out of the event, after world No2 Diede de Groot from the Netherlands beat her in the quarter-final.
The country’s top ranked quad player, Sithole got his campaign underway against world No23 Shota Kawano from Japan, a rematch of the 2015 semi-final in Sydney.
The world No4 booked a semi-final showdown with defending champion and tournament favourite Dylan Alcott after dominating the Japanese to seal a 6-2 6-3 victory.
The semi-final match is scheduled on Friday at 9am Sydney time.
Meanwhile, rivals Montjane and De Groot are used to pushing each other to the limit but the 31-year-old seventh seed from Limpopo was second best to powerful-hitting Wimbledon champion De Groot, losing 6-2 6-2.
It is the Dutchwoman second seed’s fourth victory over Montjane and she will now play compatriot world No5 Aniek van Koot for a place in the final.
‘Diede deserved to win today, she was definitely the better player on the court,’ said Montjane.
Montjane’s Sydney Open campaign is over for another year but the world No7 could take pride in her sizzling performance with doubles partner Germany’s Sabine Ellerbrock winning a typically gruelling doubles quarter-final match against Marjolein Buis from the Netherlands and Katharina Kruger from Germany 5-7 6-1 6-4 on Wednesday.
The South African-German pair were however denied a spot in the final by top seeds De Groot and Aniek van Koot, both from the Netherlands, losing 6-3 6-4 on Thursday.
Picture of Sithole courtesy of Reg Caldecott