Melbourne Wheelchair Open 2024: Results & updates

Alfie Hewett and Gordon Reid will contest two finals between them on Friday’s last day of the Melbourne Wheelchair Open after Hewett beat Japanese sixth seed Takashi Sanada 6-2, 6-2 in his singles semi-final to move to within one match of successfully defending his title.

Hewett needed just 68 minutes to secure his sixth win in a row against Sanada and he will now play second seed Oda for the first time since their 2023 Wimbledon final.

Hewett and Reid will then bid to win their second Melbourne Open doubles title when the top seeds take on second seeds Joachim Gerard of Belgium and Stephane Houdet of France. Hewett and Reid, the 2020 champions, were awarded a walkover ahead of their scheduled semi-final against Daisuke Arai and Sanada.

Andy Lapthorne and David Wagner made a bold bid for a place in the quad doubles final as the Anglo-American duo took top seeds Sam Schroder and Niels Vink to either a deciding match tie-break or deciding third set for the fourth time, but it was ultimately the Dutch pairing who had the final say, edging to a 6-2, 2-6, (10-6) win.

Alfie Hewett maintained British hopes of a singles title on a rain-delayed fourth day of play at the Melbourne Wheelchair Open after the world No.1 beat Belgian fifth seed Joachim Gerard 6-2, 4-6, 6-2.

Defending champion Hewett looked to be on course to repeat his straight sets win over Gerard in the semi-finals of last week’s Victorian Open before the Belgian finished the second set strongly. But Hewett finally earned the breakthrough in the final set to break for a 4-2 lead and went on to book a semi-final against Japanese sixth seed Takashi Sanada after two hours and 29 minutes.

Lucy Shuker held a 3-0 second set lead against China’s Luoyao Guo as she attempted to take her women’s singles quarter-final to a third set, but Guo came back to earn a 6-2, 6-4 win and Shuker will now head straight for the Australian Open.

Andy Lapthorne continued to show some strong early-season form against fellow top 10 players in the quad singles, but Lapthorne’s Melbourne Open singles campaign also ended in the quarter-finals after he bowed out to world No.2 Sam Schroder 7-6(4), 6-4.

Wednesday’s rain delay in Craigieburn meant that the doubles semi-finals were postponed until Thursday, when Lapthorne and Schroder will be on opposite sides of the net again.

Lucy Shuker beat seeded opposition on the third day of play at Hume Tennis and Community Centre as she joined Andy Lapthorne and Alfie Hewett in reaching Melbourne Open singles quarter-finals.

Currently world ranked No.12, Shuker dug deep to beat world No.9 and eighth seed Lizzy de Greef of the Netherlands 6-0, 4-6, 6-4 in two hours and 36 minutes, earning a women’s singles quarter-final against China’s Luoyao Guo, who also beat a seed to reach the last eight.

The first all-British match-up of 2024 on the UNIQLO Wheelchair Tennis Tour ended in victory for world No.8 Lapthorne after the British No.1 beat British No.2 Greg Slade 6-0, 6-4 to book his place in the quarter-finals against second seed Sam Schroder.

Top seed Hewett maintained British interest in the men’s singles after racing past young Australian Yassin Hill 6-0, 6-0 and Hewett will now continues his Melbourne Open title defence against Belgian fifth seed Joachim Gerard, who ended Dahnon Ward’s singles campaign 6-1, 6-1.

There was disappointment for Gordon Reid after the fourth seed lost out to Maikel Scheffers of the Netherlands 6-3, 6-1, but 

Doubles

There was better news for Reid in the men’s doubles after he and Hewett advanced to the semi-finals with a 6-2, 6-3 victory over Korean Ho Won Im and Guilhem Laget of France.

Top seeds Hewett and Reid will now play Japanese fourth seeds Daisuke Arai and Takashi Sanada for a place in the final as they bid to win the Melbourne Open title for a second time.

While Shuker goes on to face Chinese opposition in her women’s singles quarter-final, she was the only non-Chinese player on court for her doubles quarter-final as her doubles campaign came to an end. Shuker and Zhenzhen Zhu were edged out by Xiaohui Li and Ziying Wang 6-2, 4-6, 10-8.

Lapthorne also moved a step closer to the quad doubles final after his second match of the day with Slade on the opposite side of the net. Former Australian Open champions and third seeds Lapthorne and David Wagner beat Slade and Australian Finn Broadbent 6-2, 6-1 to set up a semi-final against Dutch top seeds Schroder and Niels Vink.

Alfie Hewett took his current singles winning streak into double figures after he opened his Melbourne Wheelchair Open title defence with a 6-1, 6-1 win over Australian Anderson Parker, with fellow Brits Gordon Reid, Dahnon Ward and Greg Slade making it four wins from four singles matches on the second day of play.

With top seed Hewett going forward to play Yassin Hill of Australia for a place in the quarter-finals, Reid will play Dutchman Maikel Scheffers next after defeating Japan’s Yoshinobu Fujimoto 6-1, 6-0.

Meanwhile 18-year-old British No.4 Ward booked his place in the second round of a Super Series tournament for the first time after beating Mexico’s Carlos Muro 6-2, 6-1. Ward will now play Belgian fifth seed Joachim Gerard on Tour for the second week in a row.

The first all-British match-up of 2024 will be between Slade and Andy Lapthorne after Slade booked his place in the second round of the quad singles with a 4-6, 6-3, 6-2 victory over Germany’s Maximillian Laudan. After his first-round bye, Lapthorne will play Slade for the fourth time, but for the first time outside of Britain.

Doubles

A fine day for Slade ended on another winning note after his tournament debut with Australian partner Finn Broadbent saw the duo fight back to beat Turkey’s Ahmet Kaplan and Slovakia’s Tomas Masaryk 3-6, 6-4, (10-8) to reach the quarter-finals of the quad doubles, where Slade will again meet Lapthorne and his American partner David Wagner.

Elsewhere, Hewett and Reid also ended the day with two wins apiece after the record-breaking doubles partnership’s first match of 2024 resulted in a 6-3, 6-1 win over Chile’s Alexander Cataldo and Casey Ratzlaff of USA. Hewett and Reid’s bid for a second Melbourne Open men’s doubles title will continue with a quarter-final against Ho Won Im of Korea and Frenchman Guilhem Laget.

However, Ward’s doubles campaign ended early alongside New Zealand’s Jonti Dimond after a 6-0, 6-0 loss to Japanese third seeds Takuya Miki and Tokito Oda.

Lucy Shuker raced through to the second round of the women’s singles on the opening day of the Melbourne Wheelchair Open, her 6-1, 6-1 win over Johana Martinez stretching Shuker’s unbeaten career record to eight wins against the Colombian.

Shuker will next play Dutch eighth seed Lizzy de Greef.

Four of the remaining five Brits in the draw all begin their singles challenges on Monday’s second day of competition, when Greg Slade will face German qualifier Maximillian in a bid to set up an all-British quad singles second round contest against Andy Lapthorne.

Doubles

As well as beginning their singles campaigns on Monday, Alfie Hewett and Gordon Reid make their 2024 doubles debut as the top seeds take on Chile’s Alexander Cataldo and Casey Ratzlaff of the USA, with Dahnon Ward and his New Zealand partner Jonti Dimond facing Japan’s men’s doubles third seeds Takuya Miki and Tokito Oda.

Slade will begin a new doubles partnership with Australian Finn Broadbent in the quad doubles, when they take on Slovakian Tomas Masaryk and Turkey’s Ahmet Kaplan.

Shuker will partner China’s Zhenzhen Zhu in the women’s doubles, while Lapthorne will renew his successful partnership with the USA’s David Wagner. Shuker and Zhu and Lapthorne and Wagner are third seeds for the women’s doubles and quad doubles, respectively, and have first-round byes.