Britains’ Alfie Hewett and Gordon Reid Win • ATP Tennis • Rotterdam Singles and Doubles Titles

Britain’s Alfie Hewett and Gordon Reid dominated the singles and doubles events for the second year in a row at the ABN AMRO World Wheelchair Tennis Tournament in Rotterdam, with Hewett retaining the singles title in Sunday’s all-Brit final before he and Reid went on to also make it back-to-back doubles titles. 

In another impressive tournament for players on the LTA’s Wheelchair Tennis World Class Programme, Hewett came from 5-2 down in the opening set against two-time Rotterdam champion Reid and saved a set point at 5-4 before completing a 7-5, 6-4 victory. 

World No.3 Hewett, who won his 2020 final against Reid 6-0, 6-3, said:    

“I think it was a really good level from both of us today and it was just a few points at crucial moments that decided it in the end. We both know what we can produce and know each other very well, so to produce that level after so long away in Australia shows the strength in depth that we have.” 

After also turning the tables on Joachim Gerard of Belgium, the player he lost out to in the recent Australian Open final, to win his Rotterdam semi-final 6-3, 6-7(2), 6-3, Hewett added: 

“I had to move on pretty swiftly from 5-2 down (against Reid) and just tried to make balls and go for it a little bit more, but at this point I don’t have much memory of the match. I just wanted to focus on my game and try and get my face back up on that winners’ wall.” 

Ninety minutes after their singles final had finished, Hewett and Reid were back on court and they produced another accomplished performance to defeat Dutch duo Tom Egberink and Maikel Scheffers 6-1, 6-1 in the doubles final. The ten-time Grand Slam champions have now won nine of their last ten doubles events and 20 of their last 21 doubles matches together. 

Reid, who won back-to-back singles titles in Rotterdam in 2016 and 2017, it was a fifth doubles title in Rotterdam since 2013 and his second with Hewett. Having beaten world No.2 Gustavo Fernandez 6-3, 6-2 in Saturday’s singles semi-finals, the world No.5 said: 

“It’s been a good week overall and there are lots of positives to take forward. I’m really happy to get to the singles final and obviously couldn’t get over the line today but a lot of things I’ve been working on are starting to show against the top guys, so I’m just looking forward to taking that into the rest of the year.  

“Obviously We’re really happy with the result in doubles and taking home the title again. It’s tough for those guys (Egberink and Scheffers) as they’ve not had much match practice at all, although they’ve been playing together in training. We experienced that at the US Open last year after six or seven months off and for them it’s not been a year.”  

To find out more about the LTA’s work with disability tennis, head to www.lta.org.uk/play or email disabilitytennis@lta.org.uk.