Alfie Hewett and Gordon Reid do it again as they win fourth Australian Open title in a row

Tennis365
Four-time Australian Open men's doubles champions Alfie Hewett and Gordon Reid with trophy

Alfie Hewett and Gordon Reid claimed a fourth successive Australian Open title in men’s wheelchair doubles.

The pair were beaten finalists at both Wimbledon and the US Open, ending a run of 10 successive Grand Slam titles, but they were dominant again in a 6-1, 6-2 victory over Dutch duo Maikel Scheffers and Ruben Spaargaren.

The win means a 16th Slam doubles title for Hewett and as a pair, and a 20th for Reid.

The Scot struggled last year with injury but is fully fit again, and he said: “I think that’s exactly the kind of performance we’re looking for. Especially to do it in that pressure moment in a final like that is really confidence building for us.

“I think last year we had to scrap our way through quite a lot of matches. This year we wanted to, right from the start of the year, try and take matches by the scruff of the neck and try to dictate them. I think that’s exactly what we did today. We’re really proud of that performance.”

He added: “It’s never easy but if we can play like we did today and go on court with the mindset and the intention we had today then it certainly can be slightly easier that we sometimes make it.

“We’re really pleased and there are lots of positives to take away.”

Hewett will bid for a first Australian Open singles title on Saturday when he takes on 16-year-old Japanese player Tokito Oda.

He said: “It feels really good to get the win today in such a short space of time because last week when we played them it was three and a half hours.

“I think that shows the improvements we’re making as a team and we’re just trying to find our levels again and performances like today really help the confidence and we can build on that.

“We’ve got ambitions to kick on and it’s 18 months until the (Paris 2024) Games. For me, personally, it’s just great to have him (Reid) back. I played with quite a few different players last year, so I missed him a bit.”

There was defeat, though, for Britain’s Ranah Stoiber in the semi-finals of the girls’ singles.

The 17-year-old was bidding to become the first British girl to reach a slam final since Katie Swan here eight years ago but she lost 6-3 6-2 to 15-year-old Russian Mirra Andreeva.

It will be an all Russian final, with Andreeva taking on fellow 15-year-old Alina Korneeva.

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