British Tennis Star • Alfie Hewett Finishes Runner-Up in U.S. Open Men’s Singles Final

After Completing Historic Doubles Calendar Year Grand Slam

Alfie Hewett had to settle for runners-up honours for the third time in five years at the US Open after world No.1 and Tokyo Paralympic champion Shingo Kunieda claimed his eighth US Open men’s singles title 6-1, 6-4. 

World No.2 Hewett, the champion in New York in 2018 and 2019, was unable to win a point in the first three games after the flare up of a shoulder injury. However, after treatment on court Hewett started to show the powers of recovery that have so often been the trademark of his victories at Grand Slams and so many of the world’s other big wheelchair tournaments. 

Hewett, who made history on Saturday partnering fellow Brit Gordon Reid as they became the first men’s wheelchair doubles partnership to complete a calendar year Grand Slam, said:  

“Obviously I’m disappointed in the match, I think Shingo played pretty well and came out pretty strong. On the back of last week (when Kunieda won the Paralympic gold medal in Tokyo) you could see that he really wanted it.” 

Five-time Grand Slam singles champion Hewett produced a succession of winners with his favoured topspin backhand in the second set. But having fought hard to recover from 3-0 and 4-1 down to level the set, he was unable to force a decider, with Kunieda showing just why he is now a 25-time Grand Slam singles champion and eight-time US Open singles champion. Hewett added: 

“I couldn’t quite execute the points that I probably needed to, to make it a little bit more entertaining. In the second set there were snippets of what I needed to do out there to be able to beat him, but I couldn’t do it consistently enough today. That’s sport. If you’re not going to do it consistently enough, you’re not going to win. 

“World Team Cup is now the plan in 10 days. It’s not a long turnaround, but I’m really looking forward to that. It’s a great event, to be part of a GB team again, so it should be fun.” 

Hewett and Reid claimed an unprecedented fifth successive US Open men’s doubles title on Saturday with a 6-2, 6-1 victory over Argentina’s Gustavo Fernandez and Kunieda. 

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