Brits Hewett, Reid and Lapthorne into trio of French open finals

British wheelchair tennis players will contest three French Open finals on Saturday at Roland Garros after a highly successful penultimate day of action in Paris saw Alfie Hewett and Gordon Reid reach their fourth successive men’s doubles final in Paris.

Meanwhile, Andy Lapthorne partnered South Africa’s Donald Ramphadi to a stunning 6-4, 4-6, (10-6) victory over Dutch top seeds Sam Schroder and Niels Vink in the quad doubles semi-finals. The British No.1 will now bid for his second French Open doubles title in three years.

With world No.1 Hewett already into Saturday’s men’s singles final against Japan’s world No.2 Tokito Oda, it was Oda on the opposite side of the net to Hewett and Reid in their doubles semi-final as the Japanese 17-year-old and Belgium’s Joachim Gerard tried to prevent Hewett and Reid from reaching a 15th successive Grand Slam final.

However, after breaking Gerard’s serve in the fifth game of the match Hewett and Reid were rarely in trouble and eventually wrapped up a 6-2, 6-2 victory in an hour and eight minutes. Reid, who will now bid for his sixth French Open doubles title and his 17th Grand Slam doubles title partnering Hewett, said:

“It feels great. I think collectively we can agree that that was one of the best performances we've had for a while. I think the intensity and the focus that we had throughout the entire match against two really dangerous players was really top drawer and it's really set us up nicely for the final.”

With Hewett also bidding for his fourth Roland Garros singles title on Saturday, a doubles semi-final victory against world No.2 Oda was well-timed, but it’s not something Hewett is putting any emphasis on. He said:

“I take them as two different matches; just the styles and the way that the tactical play plays out is completely different. It was just good to be out there with Gio (Reid’s nickname) today. Like Gordon said it was certainly one of our best performances that we've had together.”

Hewett and Reid will now play Gustavo Fernandes of Argentina and Spain’s Martin de la Puente for the doubles title.

Lapthorne and Ramphadi had no yardstick against which to measure their quad doubles semi-final performance against reigning Paralympic champions and defending French Open champions Schroder and Vink but it was a performance of the highest order that sets up a final against second seeds Heath Davidson of Australia and Robert Shaw of Canada. A delighted Lapthorne said:

“Donald and I had never played together before but we've decided to pair up for the rest of the year, so it was exciting to get out there and play. It was a tough draw to start with, but it was really enjoyable to play with Donald. We were getting used to each other in the first set and then once we knew what each other was doing, I felt we gelled really well. In the 10-point tie-break it's one or two points that can decide it and I think that's what happened. Luckily it went our way.”

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