French Riviera Open 2024: Results & updates

Andy Lapthorne and Dutchman Niels Vink marked their debut tournament as partners with a remarkable victory in the quad doubles final on the penultimate day of the French Riviera Open, with Alfie Hewett earning his return to Sunday’s men’s singles final after an equally tense semi-final.

Top seeds Lapthorne and Vink battled back from a set down and 6-1 down in the deciding match tie-break to earn a memorable victory over Australia’s Heath Davidson and Ahmet Kaplan of Turkey 6-7(1), 6-2, (12-10).

After a first set during which no more than one game separated the two partnerships throughout, Lapthorne and Vink eventually snatched a marathon first game at the start of the second set and that proved the catalyst for going on to force the match tie-break after an hour and 4-2 minutes.

Prospects of Lapthorne and Vink exceeding the two hours and four minutes that it took Hewett to win his men’s singles semi-final appeared slim as they found themselves 6-1 down in the race to 10 points, but they saved three match points at 9-6 down before finally converting their second match point to lift the Super Series title after two hours and eight minutes.

Hewett crucially managed to earn the first service hold of the second set of his semi-final against De la Puente as he took momentum into the final set. A run of three games turned a 1-2 deficit into a 4-2 lead in the decider, but De la Puente proved a determined opponent and Hewett managed to regain the lead at 6-5 as their match tipped into a third hour before recording his 20th win in 21 career matches against Spain world No.4, 3-6,6-1,7-5.

Hewett will now play second seed Tokito Oda of Japan in Sunday’s final after Oda ended hopes of an all-British title decider following his 6-3, 6-2 win over Gordon Reid.

Alfie Hewett and Gordon Reid continued their winning ways on the fourth day of the French Riviera Open as the two dual champions in Biot booked their places in this year’s semi-finals to maintain hopes of an all-British men’s singles final.

Reid is the only one of the four semi-finalists to not be among the tournament’s top four seeds after the world No.5 came from a set and 6-5 down to defeat world No.3 Gustavo Fernandez 4-6, 7-6(4), 6-3 in his quarter-final.

Reid again came from behind in the second set, a sequence of three games in a row giving him a narrow 3-2 lead and he subsequently held on to snatch a tight game that put him within a game of victory at 5-3.  

After two hours and 29 minutes Reid came back from two game points down to wrap up a victory that now earns him a semi-final against Japanese second seed Tokito Oda.

Top seed Hewett’s victory over Frenchman Stephane Houdet was rather more straightforward.

The current world No.1 was on the verge of opening a 2-0 lead on the former world No.1 but found himself 2-1 in arrears after three games. But having threatened to break Houdet’s serve to love in the first few games, Hewett finally achieved just that to move 5-3 ahead before converting his second set point after 38 minutes.

Hewett continued to find success on Houdet’s serve in the second set as he opened up a 5-2 lead and he went on to serve out to love for a 6-4, 6-2 victory that earns him a semi-final against Spanish fourth seed Martin de la Puente.

A successful day for the Brits ended with Andy Lapthorne making it two wins from two matches partnering Dutchman Niels Vink as the top seeds eased to a 6-1, 6-1 quad doubles semi-final win over the USA’s Andrew Bogdanov and Canada’s Mitch McIntyre in 56 minutes.

Lapthorne and Vink will now play Australia’s Heath Davidson and Turkey’s Ahmet Kaplan in the final, giving Lapthorne another chance to face Kaplan after he started the fourth day of play in Biot having to retire from his quad singles quarter-final against Kaplan early in the second set.    

Alfie Hewett and Gordon Reid kept themselves both on track for a third French Riviera men’s singles title on the third day of play in Biot as they booked their places in the last eight with straight sets victories over Jose Pablo Gil and Takuya Miki, respectively.

World No.1 Hewett took just 22 mins to ease through the first set of his first career match against Costa Rica’s Gil and dropped just the opening game of the second set as he wrapped up a 6-0, 6-1 victory with a break to love to set up a meeting with either Frenchman Stepane Houdet or Ruben Spaargaren of the Netherlands.

Hewett and Reid dominated the French Riviera Open between them from 2018 to 2021, each lifting the men’s singles title in consecutive years, starting with Reid’s victory in 2018. And Reid earned his return to the last eight in Biot with a 6-4, 6-2 victory over Japan’s Takuya Miki, the player he beat in the 2019 final.  

Establishing a two-game cushion at 3-1 in both sets, Reid saw Miki level the opening set at 4-4 before regaining the momentum, but he never allowed Miki to get back on terms in the second set and comfortably extended his unbeaten winning streak against the Japanese to 18 victories.

Drawn in separate halves of the men’s draw, Hewett and Reid maintain British hopes of another title after British No.3 Ben Bartram bowed out against world No.4 Martin de la Puente of Spain 6-1, 6-1.

Andy Lapthorne’s first ever tournament partnering world No.2-ranked Dutchman Niels Vink sees the British No.1 go into the quad doubles semi-finals as the last remaining Brit in the draw.

Top seeds Lapthorne and Vink prevailed after the toughest of draws against Israeli duo Guy Sasson and Shraga Weinberg, making the decisive move at the same stage of both sets of their quarter-final match to seal a 7-6(5), 7-6(5) victory after two hours and 21 minutes.

Lapthorne – who partnered Sasson to finish as runners-up to Vink and Sam Schroder in the quad doubles at the French Open last week – will now partner Vink in a semi-final against north American duo Andrew Bogdanov and Mitch McIntyre.

However, Greg Slade’s hopes of making it to a fourth final in four tournaments alongside Slovakia’s Tomas Masaryk came to an end. Slade and Masaryk recovered from 4-2 down to win the opening set of their quarter-final, but eventually bowed out in a deciding match tie-break against Brazilian fourth seeds Leandro Pena and Ymanitu Silva 5-7, 6-3, (10-4).

Andy Lapthorne needed just 56 minutes to book his place in the quad singles quarter-finals on the second morning of play in Biot after winning his first career match against American Andrew Bogdanov 6-2, 6-0.

The British No.1 and world No. 6 will now play Turkey’s world No.7 Ahmet Kaplan for a place in the semi-finals after Kaplan ended the hopes of British No.2 Greg Slade 6-2, 6-2.

Slade returned to court later in the day to open his quad doubles campaign alongside Tomas Masaryk with a win. The British, Slovakian pair took their win-loss record as a partnership to 8-1 as they crucially held serve in both sets of their first-round match against German twins Marcus and Maximillian Laudan to progress 6-6, 6-4 after an hour and 46 minutes.

In the quarter-finals, they'll play Brazilian fourth seeds Leandro Pena and Ymanitu Silva.

Meanwhile, Lapthorne and Dutchman Niels Vink are top seeds for the quad doubles and have a first round bye.

However, it was not to be for Ben Bartram and Dahnon Ward in their bid to reach the French Riviera Open men’s doubles quarter-finals for the second year in a row.

Bartam and Ward came within touching distance of a place in the last eight and fought back from 7-5 down in a deciding match tie-break to save a match point, but they eventually lost out to Malaysian duo Abu Samah Borhan and Mohammed Bin Yusuf 2-6,6-2, (10-8) after an hour and 49 minutes.

Day one of the French Riviera Open saw Brits claim victories across the board with Alfie Hewett, Gordon Reid, Greg Slade and Ben Bartram all beginning their title campaigns with wins.

Quad star Slade opened up with a comprehensive 7-5, 6-3 win over Marcus Laudan in his first round, while Bartram beat world No.10 Taashi Sanada 6-4, 6-4 to progress to the second round. Bartram's win over Sanada marked just his second career win against a top 10 ranked opponent, and will look to carry the momentum into the next round.

Two-time French Riviera Open champions Reid and Hewett both began their quests for a third title in Biot with 6-0, 6-2 wins over Italy’s Luca Arca and Guilhem Laget of France, respectively.

Reid, the 2018 and 2019 champion took just 66 minutes to beat Arca, but the quickest win of the day among the Brits belonged to world No.1 and 2020 and 2021 champion Hewett, who needed just 52 minutes to beat Laget.

However, it wasn't to be for Dahnon Ward who came within touching distance of making a clean sweep of five wins. After recovering from 5-3 down in the final set to force a tie-break, Ward had to claw back from 4-1 down before eventually losing out to France's Nicolas Charrier, 4-6, 7-6(5), 7-6(5).

Six Brits are set to contest the 2024 French Riviera Open, the fourth of the ITF Super Series tournaments scheduled for this season, with Alfie Hewett and Gordon Reid again heading the British entry for the men’s singles and doubles in Biot, near Nice, following their fifth successive doubles title at Roland Garros.

Hewett and Reid are joined in the men’s events by Ben Bartram and Dahnon Ward. Andy Lapthorne, fresh from contesting his fourth French Open quad doubles final in Paris, heads the Brit entry in the quad draws alongside Greg Slade.

Daily news from the French Riviera Open 2024 will be available on our website and via our social media channels.