British interest in the US Open Wheelchair Tennis Competition came to an end on the penultimate day in New York, with Andy Lapthorne bowing out of the quad singles and finishing runner-up in the quad doubles aftter two tough three set matches.
World No. 2 Lapthorne made an impressive start to his third and last quad singles round-robin match against South Africa’s world No. 3 Sithole, with the South African winning one just point in the first two games and Lapthorne dropping just the third game of the opening set to seize the initiative.
However, with Lapthorne leading the second set 5-3 and on the verge of the straight sets victory he needed to earn a place in Sunday’s final, Sithole suddenly gathered momentum and reeled off nine games in succession en route to completing a 1-6, 7-5, 6-1 victory.
Despite some hotly contested games Lapthorne and Sithole saw American top seeds Nick Taylor and Taylor and Wagner take the opening set of the quad doubles final 6-0. Lapthorne and Sithole claimed the seventh game of the match to start a sequence of four games that took them into 4-1 second set lead en route to levelling the match.
However, their comeback was short-lived and Taylor and Wagner built a 4-0 lead in the decider and went on to win their fifth US Open doubles title 6-0, 2-6, 6-3.
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