Norfolk's Alfie Hewett and partner Gordon Reid have equalled the record for most Grand Slam men’s doubles titles in the Open era after another success in Australia.
The British second seeds beat Dutch duo Maikel Scheffers and Ruben Spaargaren 6-1, 6-2 to seal their fourth successive Australian Open wheelchair title and their 16th major title together.
Contesting their 14th successive Grand Slam final, second seeds Hewett and Reid raced to a 4-0 lead over Scheffers and Spaargaren before wrapping up the opening set in 27 minutes as Spaargaren sprayed a forehand wide of its intended target.
A week ago Hewett and Reid, who are supported by the LTA’s Elite Wheelchair Programme, beat Scheffers and Spaargaren in a deciding match tie-break in the semi-finals of the Melbourne Open Super Series tournament, but they showed no signs of being taken to such extremes this time.
They won 12 points without reply for a 5-1 second-set lead before Reid served out the match on the third championship point after a double fault on the first.
Former City College Norwich student Hewett, from Cantley, now plays Japan’s Tokito Oda on Saturday as he bids for a first Australian Open singles crown.
“It feels really good to get the win today in such a short space of time because last week when we played them it was three and a half hours," he said.
"I think that shows the improvements we’re making as a team and we’re just trying to find our levels again and performances like today really help the confidence and we can build on that.
"We’ve got ambitions to kick on and it’s 18 months until the (Paris 2024) Games. For me, personally, it’s just great to have him (Reid) back. I played with quite a few different players last year, so I missed him a bit.”
Alfie Hewett, left, and Gordon Reid on their way to victory (Image: LTA)
Hewett's and Reid’s latest major title sees them equal the record of 16 Grand Slam men’s doubles titles as a pair won by American twins Bob and Mike Bryan. When winning their third Australian Open and third French Open titles in 2022 they created a new record of 10 successive Grand Slam doubles titles as a pair, beating the previous record of eight won by Martina Navratilova and Pam Shriver.
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