Australian Open 2026: Brits set for potential quarter-final clashes as wheelchair draws are announced
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Alfie Hewett and Gordon Reid, and Andy Lapthorne and Greg Slade are projected to meet each other in two possible all-British quarter-finals at the Australian Open after the wheelchair singles draws for the first Grand Slam of the year were released.
Lucy Shuker will be the first of Britain’s No.1-ranked wheelchair players in action at Melbourne Park, when the current world No.15 contests the women’s qualifying draw on Monday.
Three-time Australian Open singles semi-finalist Shuker will play Israel’s world No.18 Maayan Zikri in one of two matches that will decide the full quota of 16 players for the main draw, which begins on Tuesday.
Australian Open wheelchair singles draws
- Lucy Shuker (GBR) vs Maayan Zikri (ISR) (Qualifying)
- Alfie Hewett (GBR) (1) vs Takuyo Miki (JPN)
- Gordon Reid (GBR) vs Anderson Parker (AUS)
- Andy Lapthorne (GBR) vs Ahmet Kaplan (TUR) (4)
- Greg Slade (GBR) vs Qualifier
Hewett will open his Australian Open men’s singles title defence against Japan’s world No.8 Takuya Miki on Tuesday. Hewett last played Miki at the 2025 Victorian Open and Melbourne Open in his build up to the first major of the year.
Expected to be No.2 in the latest men’s singles rankings on Monday after finishing runner-up in this year’s Melbourne Open, the British No.1 has beaten Miki in 11 of their 13 career meetings to date.
10 years to the week since winning his first Grand Slam singles title at the 2016 Australian Open, British No.2 Reid will face Australian wild card Anderson Parker in his first round match on Tuesday.
Wins for both Hewett and Reid would see them go head-to-head at Melbourne Park for the first time since the 2023 quarter-finals, when Hewett went on to win the first of his two Australian Open singles titles.
A three-time quad singles finalist at the Australian Open, world No.5 Lapthorne has been dealt the toughest of all possible first round matches in a draw that features just four seeded players.
The British No.1 will take on Turkey’s world No.4 Ahmet Kaplan, who Lapthorne memorably beat in the final of last year’s Lexus Eastbourne Open before Kaplan won their three-set quarter-final at Wimbledon two weeks later.
British No.2 and world No.9 Slade is set to meet one of two qualifiers in his first round contest on Tuesday. Leandro Pena is one of four possible opponents for Slade from the qualifying draw, the Brazilian having denied Slade a place in the quad main draw 12 months ago.
Wins for Lapthorne and Slade on Tuesday would see them go forward to play each other for a place in the quad singles semi-finals.
