Great Britain’s Abbie Breakwell faces world No.5 Zhenzhen Zhu, while Dutch top seeds Diede de Groot and Jiske Griffioen both have byes through to Friday’s semi-finals.   

Shuker, who finished runner-up in the women’s doubles in Eastbourne last year, when Zhu was on the opposite side of the net in the final, will partner the Chinese player this year. She said: “To have the opportunity to play on the grass in Eastbourne is vital preparation for us ahead of Wimbledon and something that all us players are grateful to the LTA for providing.

"It’s always special to play at a tournament integrated into an ATP and WTA event because of the added exposure for wheelchair tennis, especially in front of a home crowd. There was a great buzz around Devonshire Park last year and after finishing runner-up in the doubles 12 month ago it would be great to win the title and also go deep in the singles draw this year and I‘ll be doing my utmost to make that happen.”

Draws & results

The tournament also features three of Britain’s leading players from the quad division, for players whose disability affects three or more limbs.

British No.2 Greg Slade will play Gary Cox on the first of three days of quad singles round-robin matches. Slade will join British No.1 and world No.7 Andy Lapthorne among the entries for The Championships, Wimbledon, next month and Lapthorne, winner of the quad singles draw hosted at the Rothesay Classic Birmingham last year, will play Cox and Slade in the remaining matches on Friday and Saturday.