Andy Lapthorne clinched his fourth Australian Open quad doubles title and his second in successive years with American David Wagner on Thursday in Melbourne.
Players on the Tennis Foundation’s Wheelchair Tennis Performance Programme will play for two more Grand Slam titles on Friday after Jordanne Whiley and Gordon Reid were both triumphant in their women’s and men’s doubles semi-finals.
Top seeds Lapthorne and Wagner stormed through the opening set of the quad doubles final against Australia’s Dylan Alcott and South Africa’s Lucas Sithole winning it 6-0. However, despite having a 3-1 second set lead they were taken to a decider before building on a 3-0 third set lead to complete a 6-0, 3-6, 6-2 victory.
“I’m very pleased to now be a four-time Australian Open grand slam doubles champion. It's an amazing feeling and a lovely end to a tough couple of days,” said Lapthorne, whose other two Australian Open titles came in 2011 and 2012 partnering fellow Brit Peter Norfolk before they went on to win the quad doubles silver medal at London 2012.
Quad Singles Draw Quad Doubles Draw
Whiley and Japan’s Yui Kamiji, winners of all four Grand Slam women’s doubles titles in 2014, began their Australian Open title defence with a 6-4, 6-3 semi-final win over Germany’s Katharina Kruger and Dutchwoman Sharon Walraven.
Whiley and Kamiji went a break down early in the opening set, but fought back to lead 5-2 en route to taking the set. The top seeds also dropped the first game of the second set, but went on to seal a straight sets victory that earns them a place in Friday’s final against Dutch second seeds Jiske Griffioen and Aniek van Koot. Whiley and Kamiji beat Griffioen and van Koot in the Roland Garros, Wimbledon and US Open finals last season.
"I’m really happy to make the final, but it wasn't my best day,” said Whiley. “I certainly need to play better tomorrow in the final."
Women's Singles Draw Women's Doubles Draw
Reid will contest his second Australian Open men’s doubles final after partnering Argentina’s Gustavo Fernandez to win their semi-final against second seeds Joachim Gerard of Belgium and Maikel Scheffers of the Netherlands 6-1, 7-5, having come from 2-0 down and 5-3 down in the second set.
“It was important to me that I bounced back after a disappointing performance yesterday against Gustvo in the singles. I thought we combined very well together as a team and had our game plan spot on. I'm looking forward to the challenge in the final tomorrow and believe if we can put in another performance like that we have a good chance to take home the title.,” said Reid, who partnered Scheffers to the 2014 final.
Reid and Fernandez will play defending champions and top seeds Stephane Houdet of France and Shingo Kunieda of Japan in this year's final.
Men's Singles Draw Men's Doubles Draw
Earlier in the day, Lapthorne saw his hopes of a place in the quad singles final fade when he was edged out 6-3, 7-6(4) by Sithole in his second of three round-robin singles matches. World No. 3 Lapthorne will now play world No. 1 Wagner in his final singles match on Friday.
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