Cajun Classic 2026: Alfie Hewett to face Tokito Oda in singles final, as four Brits finish doubles runners-up
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Alfie Hewett booked his place in his sixth Cajun Classic men’s singles final since 2017, before the penultimate day of this year’s WT1000 tournament came to a close with Brits finishing runners-up in the men’s, women’s and quad doubles finals.
Defending champion Hewett will play world No.1 Tokito Oda in Sunday’s final in Baton Rouge after beating third seed Martin de la Puente 3-6, 6-2, 6-4 in his men’s singles semi-final to extend his career head-to-head record against the Spaniard to 30 wins and just three losses.
In a rematch of the 2025 final in Baton Rouge, De la Puente won four of the last five games in the opening set, but Hewett came out with a new intent in the second set.
Alongside finding winners off both wings he frustrated De la Puente with a number of successful dropshots and converted all four of his break point opportunities.
With the world ranking points for last year’s Cajun Classic having come off the 52-week rollover tally for both players, De la Puente replaced Hewett as world No.2 at the start of this week, but on the court it was second seed Hewett who ends the week with the upper hand again after capitalising on a 5-2 lead in the deciding set.
While Hewett will now bid to win his third successive Cajun Classic singles title – and his sixth in total since 2017 – his bid for a fourth successive men’s doubles title in Baton Rouge alongside Gordon Reid came to an end.
The top seeds lost out to second seeds Daniel Caverzaschi and Ruben Spaargaren 4-6, 6-2, 10-6 as the Brits faced their Spanish-Dutch partnership for the first time in a doubles draw.
Meanwhile, Lucy Shuker and her Dutch partner Aniek van Koot also saw their women’s doubles title defence come to an end, despite a stirring second set fight back from 4-0 down.
Shuker and Van Koot extended Japan’s Momoko Ohtani and Zhu Zhenzhen of China to a second set tie-break, but the second seeds could not complete the comeback, with Ohtani and Zhu prevailing 6-4, 7-6(3) in what was also the first meeting between the two partnerships.
Andy Lapthorne went into the quad doubles final hoping to secure his fifth Cajun Classic doubles title, but it was not to be as the British No.1 and Australia’s Heath Davidson, who lost out in the final to top seeds Guy Sasson of Israel and Niels Vink for the second time this season.
Contesting their fourth tournament final of 2026, Lapthorne and Davidson missed out 6-3, 6-2 against Sasson and Vink, who currently hold all four Grand Slam quad doubles titles.
