New York | Hewett, Reid and Lapthorne into wheelchair doubles semis

Alfie Hewett, Gordon Reid and Andy Lapthorne opened their campaigns to add to their multiple US Open doubles titles with straight sets victories in the men’s and quad doubles quarter finals on Wednesday in New York.

Hewett and Reid, who are both supported by the LTA’s Elite Wheelchair Programme along with Lapthorne, began their bid for a sixth US Open men’s doubles title in seven years with a 7-5 6-3 victory over Belgium’s Joachim Gerard and Maikel Scheffers of the Netherlands.

Attempting to complete a second doubles calendar Grand Slam in three years, top seeds Hewett and Reid closed out the two sets of their quarter-final by each hitting forehand winners, victory coming after an hour and 42-minutes. They will now play Stephane Houdet of France and Japan’s Takashi Sanada in a busy schedule later today when both players also have their men’s singles quarter finals. Reid said:

“Maikel played a really solid match today, He didn’t give us much (pace to work off) and you had Jo on the other side of the court, who was being more of the aggressor and taking the ball on, so it was difficult to find a rhythm. We had tough conditions, as well with a little bit of wind, the humidity and the heat, so it took us a bit of time to find our way but once we got flowing we produced some good tennis.”

Andy Lapthorne returns a shot during his wheelchair quad Men's Singles match

(Photo by Clive Brunskill/Getty Images)

Andy Lapthorne’s bid for a fifth US Open quad doubles title with a third different partner started with the British No.1 and South Africa’s Donald Ramphadi beating Australia’s Heath Davidson and Canada’s Robert Shaw 7-6(4) 6-4. Reigning French Open champions Lapthorne and Ramphadi came from 2-0 down in the second set to defeat the same partnership they beat to win their maiden Grand Slam title together in Paris in June. They will now play Slovakia’s Tomas Masaryk and Brazil’s Ymanitu Silva for a place in Saturday’s final.

Having already won her first US Open singles match, Lucy Shuker was unable to match that achievement in the women’s doubles, her first career match partnering Pauline Deroulede of France ending in a 6-1 6-3 loss to second seeds Yui Kamij of Japan and South Africa’s Kgothatso Montjane, the reigning French Open champions.

While Shuker faces world No.1 Diede de Groot of the Netherlands in Thursday’s women’s singles quarter finals, Hewett continues his men’s singles title defence with a last eight match against Japan’s Takuya Miki and Reid will also bid for a place in the men’s singles semis when he takes on Spanish fourth seed Martin de la Puente.

Lapthorne will play his doubles partner Ramphadi for a place in the quad singles semis, while a busy day for British players also includes the start of the second edition of the US Open Junior Wheelchair Tennis Championships as 2022 boys’ singles runner-up Dahnon Ward faces Ivar van Rijt of the Netherlands and Joshua Johns plays the USA’s Charlie Cooper in his quarter final.