Melbourne Wheelchair Open 2025: Alfie Hewett & Gordon Reid capture first British wheelchair title of the season
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Alfie Hewett and Gordon Reid made the perfect start to their 2025 doubles campaign as the top seeds claimed their second successive Melbourne Open Super Series title together, with Hewett also finishing runner-up in the men’s singles and Lucy Shuker finishing runner-up in the women’s doubles.
The second of two tournaments leading into the 2025 Australian Open saw Hewett and Reid drop just three games across two matches on their way to the men’s doubles final, the Paris 2024 Paralympic champions then facing a much stronger challenge before defeating Dutch-Japanese third seeds Tom Egberink and Tokito Oda 7-5, 7-5.
The record-breaking British duo’s 53rd doubles title as a partnership was Hewett and Reid’s fourth Melbourne Open title together since 2015, with their previous wins in 2025 and 2020 coming before the tournament was promoted to Super Series status, the highest tier of wheelchair tournament outside of the Grand Slams.
Hewett’s hopes of leaving the Hume Tennis Centre in the northern suburbs off Melbourne with the men’s singles title for the third time since 2022 began well as he progressed to the final against world No. 1 Oda.
Reigning Paralympic champion Oda proved virtually unplayable in the first set of the title decider before Hewett turned his fortunes around late in the second set, eventually narrowly losing out to Oda 6-0, 4-6, 6-4, with the Japanese top seed having also secured a narrow 7-5, 6-4 win over Reid in the semis.
Shuker finishes runner-up in women's doubles
British No.1 Shuker’s hopes of earning a fourth women’s doubles title alongside Yui Kamiji progressed well, the second seeds earning a 7-5, 7-6(4) semi-final victory over last week’s Victorian Open champions Manami Tanaka and Zhu Zhenzhen.
That win gave Shuker some recompense after losing out to Japan’s Tanaka 6-4, 6-1 in the second round of the women’s singles. But with rain earlier in the week affecting the scheduling Shuker and Kamiji had to complete their doubles semi-final and play the final on the same day as they eventually finished runners-up to Dutch top seeds Jiske Griffioen and Aniek van Koot 6-2, 7-5.
While Shuker and Kamiji now team up for the second time since 2022 at the Australian Open, British No.2 Cornelia Oosthuizen also heads to Melbourne Park for the first ever women’s wheelchair singles qualifying draw at the Australian Open. She does so on the back of matching Shuker’s second round singles berth at the Melbourne Open, having beaten Latvia’s Ailina Mosko 6-0, 6-1 before bowing out to fourth seed Griffioen 6-1, 6-1.
However, Oosthuizen and her Brazilian partner Victoria Miranda were narrowly beaten in their bid to reach the women’s doubles second round, edged out by Jinte Bos of the Netherlands and France’s Charlotte Fairbank 6-7(3), 6-3, 10-8.
Lapthorne & Slade get Grand Slam preparations underway
Greg Slade joins Oosthuizen in Australian Open qualifying on Monday as he bids to join Andy Lapthorne in the quad singles and doubles main draws, with both Brits hoping to build on their Melbourne Open performances.
Lapthorne registered an early 6-1, 6-0 Melbourne Open win over Turkey’s Serdar Antac before a narrow 6-4, 7-6(0) quarter-final loss to third seed and eventual quad singes finalist Guy Sasson, with Slade involved in an equally tight first round contest before bowing out to Australian Jin Woodman 6-3, 7-6(3).
Lapthorne’s second time partnering Dutchman Sam Schroder in quad doubles competition also produced another tense encounter, their opening match going all the way to a deciding match tie-break before they eventually prevailed against Brazilian duo Leandro Pena and Ymanitu Silva 2-6, 6-1, (10-6). That set Lapthorne and Schroder up for a semi-final against Australian Heath Davidson and Canada’s Robert Shaw, the third seeds ultimately denying Lapthorne and Schroder a place in the final 7-6(4), 6-1.
Slade’s earlier quad singles loss to Woodman was repeated in the quad doubles, the British No.2 and Japan’s Kei Usami bowing out to the Australian partnership of Finn Broaddbent and Woodman 6-4, 6-3.
So, now it is on to Melbourne Park for Britain’s six wheelchair players, with a minimum of four and a maximum of six lining up on Tuesday for the start of the Australian Open Wheelchair Championships main draws.
