1 - 14 July 2019

The Championships, Wimbledon

All England Lawn Tennis Club, UK

Wimbledon: Lapthorne and Alcott lift inaugural quad doubles title

  • 12/07/2019

  • Wimbledon

Great Britain’s Andy Lapthorne made history on Friday as he partnered Australia’s Dylan Alcott to win the inaugural wheelchair tennis quad doubles title at Wimbledon.

Broadcast live on BBC2, the contest saw Lapthorne and Alcott clinch their first Grand Slam title together after a 6-2, 7-6(4) victory over American David Wagner and Japan’s Koji Sugeno.

Lapthorne and Alcott raced into a 3-0 lead after just 12 minutes and Lapthorne served out the opening set to complete another run of three games. Lapthorne then served out to love to force the second set tie-break, with Alcott benefitting from a net cord to bring up match point. He went on to seal the historic victory with a perfectly placed lob, to wrap up the final in an hour and 26 minutes.

2019 will see quad wheelchair singles and doubles events feature in all four Grand Slams for the first time, joining the established men’s and women’s events.  Players are eligible to compete in the quad division if they have a permanent physical disability that results in significant loss of function in three or more limbs, while also fulfilling the sport’s minimum disability criteria.

Lapthorne is already a multiple Grand Slam champion, having won seven doubles titles at the Australian Open and US Open as well as the US Open singles title in 2014.  This win on the grass at SW19 was, however, an extra special moment for the 28-year-old Londoner, who first visited Wimbledon at the age of nine and cites the tournament being the reason he started playing tennis.

Lapthorne, who will plays Alcott in Saturday’s quad singles final, said: “It’s amazing, To be the first ever quad doubles team going up on that winners’ board means everything to me and I’m really looking forward to the singles final now.

“Wimbledon is the reason I got involved in tennis. If it hadn’t been for Wimbledon and going there as a kid I wouldn’t have played tennis.  One of the main reasons I got into it was watching my hero Leyton Hewitt, when he was winning Wimbledon, and Tim Henman, another big hero of mine.”

Hewett and Reid battle to reach final 

Alfie Hewett and Gordon Reid are now one step closer to lifting the men's wheelchair doubles title for a fourth consecutive year after they defeated Stephane Houdet and Nicolas Peifer. The British duo captured the first set 6-3, but the French top seeds were resilient and took the second 6-2. It all came down to a deciding set tie-break, which went in Hewett and Reid's favour as they sealed a 2-6, 6-3, 7-6(4) victory. They will face second seeds Joachim Gerard and Stefan Olsson on Saturday in the final. 

10-time Grand Slam champion Jordanne Whiley was also in doubles action with Yui Kamiji, but the pair lost a hard-fought 3-6, 7-6(2), 6-1 battle to Dutch top seeds Diede de Groot and Aniek Van Koot. 

Fery and Samuel step into semis 

Arthuer Fery and Toby Samuel earned their place in the semi-finals of the boys' doubles with a confident 6-3, 6-2 win over Brandon Nakashima and Valentin Royer. They will take on seventh seeds Liam Draxl and Govind Nanda for a spot in the final. 

Elsewhere, Connor Thomson and Jacob Fearnley's impressive run ended in a 6-3, 7-5 defeat during their final-eight clash to American third seeds Martin Damm and Toby Kodat. 

Back the Brits and follow the action!

The BBC is providing live coverage and fans can keep up-to-date with all the latest news on the Brits by following the LTA on TwitterFacebook and Instagram