Peifer proved too strong for his doubles partner and world number two Houdet, triumphing 6-3, 6-3 to reach the penultimate round.

The fifth seed next plays fourth seed Gustavo Fernandez of Argentina, a 6-2, 7-5 victor at the expense of The Netherlands’ Maikel Scheffers.

There will be an all-British semi-final in the top half of the draw as Alfie Hewett goes head-to-head with world number one Gordon Reid in their first meeting since the men’s singles gold medal match at last year’s Paralympic Games in Rio de Janeiro.

Hewett repeated his Rio 2016 semi-final win over Belgium’s Joachim Gerard, who retired in the third set when trailing 1-0.

Gerard, the reigning NEC Masters champion, had earlier taken the first set 6-1 before Hewett snatched the second 7-5.

Reid, meanwhile, moved ever close to reaching the final in Sydney for the second successive year after his 6-1, 6-1 victory over Japan’s Takuya Miki.

In the women’s singles, world number seven Sabine Ellerbrock of Germany moved on from her three-set first-round success over American Dana Mathewson yesterday to secure her fourth win in her last five matches against world number four Aniek van Koot of The Netherlands in much more dominant fashion.

Ellerbrock’s 6-4, 6-0 win over Van Koot earns her a semi-final against another Dutchwoman, world number one and defending champion Jiske Griffioen, who opened her account for 2017 with a 6-0, 6-1 win against Japan’s Saki Takamuro.

The Netherlands’ Diede de Groot narrowly avoided being on the end of an upset in her quarter-final against Great Britain’s Lucy Shuker, with the fourth seed winning a thrilling encounter 6-4, 3-6, 7-6.

It sets up a semi-final with second seed and 2015 champion Yui Kamiji, who cruised to a 6-0, 6-0 win over Manami Tanaka in an all-Japanese clash.

The first set of quad singles round-robin matches also took place today as world number three Andy Lapthorne beat world number two David Wagner of the United States 6-2, 6-3 in a repeat of their Rio 2016 semi-final.

Next up for Paralympic silver medallist Lapthorne is world number one Dylan Alcott, a 6-2, 6-2 winner over fellow Australian and doubles partner Heath Davidson.