Alfie Hewett produced a devastating display of tennis on Sunday to become the first Brit to lift the men’s singles title at the British Open Wheelchair Tennis Championships at Nottingham Tennis Centre.

At the end of a weekend that saw players on the LTA’s Wheelchair Performance Pathway contest five of a possible six finals in the championship events, world No. 2 Hewett beat Japan’s world No.1 and seven-time British Open champion Shingo Kunieda 6-2, 6-3 in one hour and 10 minutes. 

Hewett, who was contesting a second British Open men’s singles final since 2017 and ended this year’s event as singles and doubles champion for the first time, said: 

“It’s great, I can’t believe how well I played, to be honest. I’ve had a great week, played really strong in other matches, but to come out and do it in the final against Shingo, who’s an incredible player and makes it really difficult for you, I’m just really amazed how well I played. Both of us played probably some of our best tennis, but I put the pressure on him right from the very first point served. 

“I’d seen some of the tweets going around before the final, so I felt a little bit of pressure today coming on court. It’s my second time being in a British Open final, so I wanted to rewrite history and become the first British men’s player to win here in the event’s 31 years.” 

Hewett could do little wrong in the first set, firing down successive aces to open up a 5-0 lead and he continued his dominance to take a 4-0 lead in the second set.  

A resilient Kunieda, who won his seventh British Open title in 2019, made Hewett work for his history-making victory and saved three match points as the 23-year-old Brit served for the match at 5-3. But his efforts were to no avail as Hewett wrapped up his fourth singles title of 2021. 

Hewett added: “The next one is Tokyo (Paralympics), which will be exciting and this is a good one to finish on before heading there.”