Cajun Classic 2026: British quartet through to doubles finals
• 1 minute read
Britain’s Alfie Hewett, Gordon Reid, Lucy Shuker and Andy Lapthorne will contest each of Saturday’s men’s, women’s and quad doubles finals at the Cajun Classic, the latest Premier Tier WT1000 event on the 2026 UNIQLO Wheelchair Tennis Tour, in Louisiana.
Hewett also continues his bid to try and make it three successive singles titles in Baton Rouge when he contests his second semi-final in successive days.
Current world No.3 Hewett takes a healthy 29-3 head-to-head record into his latest contest against this week’s world No.2 Martin de la Puente of Spain.
Top seeds Hewett and Reid beat De la Puente and Frenchman Stephane Houdet in Friday’s men’s doubles semi-finals as the 23-time Grand Slam champions moved a step closer in their attempt to make it four Cajun Classic men’s doubles titles in a row.
The British duo will now play second seeds Daniel Caverzaschi of Spain and Ruben Spaargaren of the Netherlands for the first time as a partnership when they bid to earn their 60th career doubles title as a partnership.
British No.1 Shuker and Aniek van Koot of the Netherlands will aim for the ninth career title as a partnership and their first since winning last year’s Cajun Classic women’s doubles title together after coming through a rollercoaster contest to defeat the all-Dutch partnership of Jinte Bos and Lizzy de Greef in a semi-final for the second week in a row.
The second seeds who were runners-up at last week’s Georgia Open, prevailed 6-2, 1-6, 10-7 to set up a title decider against Japan’s Momoko Ohtani and China’s Zhu Zhenzhen.
“The younger Dutch pair made it difficult," Shuker said. "Especially in the second set where they won all the deciding deuce points, so we had to focus really hard when we started the match tie-break. This gave us a 5-0 lead and we tried really hard to keep that and are really pleased to get the win and be back in the final.”
Lapthorne and Australia’s Heath Davidson saved three successive set points at 4-5 down in the first set of their quad doubles semi-final against Turkey’s Ahmet Kaplan and Benjamin Wenzel of Australia, but made much lighter work of the second set.
The second seeds booked their place in their fourth final of this season 7-6(4), 6-1 and they will now play Guy Sasson of Israel and Niel Vink of the Netherlands in Saturday’s final.
Already a four-time Cajun Classic quad doubles champion, Lapthorne has now reached six finals in his last seven tournaments partnering Davidson since last October.
Lapthorne said: “It’s great to be into the final again at the Cajun Classic and to ensure the continuation of a positive partnership with Heath. We play the number 1 seeds next, which will be touch, but will take it to them.”
