Cantley’s Alfie Hewett collected his latest wheelchair tennis trophy on Saturday evening in Rue, France, after finishing runner-up in his second ITF 1 Series men’s doubles final in successive weeks.
It brought to an end another highly successful tournament for the 16-year-old world No. 1 ranked junior, who started the Open de la Baie de Somme on Wednesday by securing his first career win over a senior world top 10 ranked player, beating world No. 7 Nicolas Peifer of France 6-4, 6-2.
Hewett went on to secure an early break to lead fellow Brit and world No. 3 Gordon Reid in their semi-final on Friday, but Reid, Hewett’s doubles partner, finally made his experience tell and the Scot moved on to the final 6-3, 6-3.
However, there was better to come in the men’s doubles, Hewett following up his victory over Peifer by partnering Reid to defeat Peifer and Frederic Cattaneo, the London 2012 Paralympic silver medallists, 6-3, 6-2 in their quarter-final. They went on to power past Dutch second seeds and three-time Doubles Masters champion Maikel Scheffers and Ronald Vink 6-0, 6-2 in the semi-finals to set up Saturday’s final against Roland Garros Grand Slam champions Joachim Gerard Belgium and Stephane Houdet of France.
It was the second successive weekend that Hewett had had Gerard and Houdet on the opposite side of the net in a final, after partnering Frenchman Michael Jeremiasz to finish runners-up to Gerard and Houdet at the Sardinia Open. Hewett and Reid threatened to extend the top seeds in the second set after rallying from 5-2 down in Rue, but Gerard and Houdet eventually claimed the title 6-1, 6-4.
“It’s been an awesome week for me here in France after beating Peifer in a career best performance and then beating the London silver medallists and Doubles Masters champions with Gordon,” said current British No. 4 Hewett, one of four Brits on the Tennis Foundation’s Wheelchair Tennis Performance Programme to reach three different finals in Rue.
“On the back of reaching two singles quarter-finals against Joachim, the world No. 5, and taking him to three sets a few weeks ago in France, I’m growing in confidence and experience all the time and learning such a lot to take back home to training. Hopefully there’s plenty more to come this season,” added Hewett, who’s currently studying for a BTEC Diploma in Sports and Exercise Science at City College Norwich after completing his GCSEs earlier this year.