Alfie Hewett goes into the new school year this week after completing another successful summer on the NEC Wheelchair Tennis Tour by retaining his men’s singles and doubles titles at the Belgium 25 tournament in Lebbeke other the weekend.
After first making his world top 25 senior men’s singles debut in May, the Cantley 15-year-old has subsequently risen to a new career high of No. 24 this week.
Cantley’s world No. 1 ranked junior won both the singles and titles in Lebbeke in 2012 when the tournament made its debut on the calendar with ITF Futures Series status. A year on, and with the tournament promoted to ITF 3 Series status, top seed Hewett dropped just one game in each of his first two singles matches. Hewett met fellow Brit and third seed Dermot Bailey in the semi-finals and as the two young players from the Tennis Foundation’s Wheelchair Tennis Performance Programme went head-to-head, Hewett prevailed in a second set tie-break to beat his doubles partner 6-1, 7-6(2).
Hewett lifted the singles title with a 6-2, 6-2 win on Sunday over the greatly experienced Dutchman Eric Stuurman, a former Paralympic men’s doubles medallist, underlining his continual climb up the international standings
“It was a great way to end the summer, because it has been tough playing five tournaments in seven weeks. It takes a lot out of you and to end on a high is just great,” said Hewett, who has now won four ITF 3 Series titles this season. “I’ve had some really tough, long matches throughout, so to travel out to Belgium and remain focused, play well and be able to sustain my levels through the whole week is very pleasing.
“I’m very happy with how I approached every match and how I played. It gives me more confidence for the future that I can play consecutive tournaments and still be able to play to the best that I can,” added the Acle High School pupil, who partnered Bailey to three straight sets wins in the men’s doubles. Hewett had already gone into the tournament with a career best doubles ranking of No. 23.
The top seeds started with a 6-4, 6-3 win over Stuurman and his fellow Dutchman Berry Korst, beat Carlos Anker of the Netherlands and Spain’s Felix Garcia 6-4, 6-4 in the semi-finals and sealed their first doubles title together after defeating Tarik Charbi of Morocco and Ivan Kindt of Belgium 6-0, 6-2.