Hewett

Britain’s Alfie Hewett began his bid for a third straight US Open wheelchair singles title with a commanding victory over American Charlie Cooper.

Second seed Hewett needed just 61 minutes to record a 6-0 6-2 win against the 17-year-old.

Wheelchair tennis is making its return in New York after conflicting schedules with the Paralympics meant the competition was not held last year.

Hewett, who won the title in 2022 and 2023, is chasing a second Grand Slam singles title this season after triumphing at the Australian Open in January.

His long-term doubles partner Gordon Reid won later on Wednesday, claiming a hard-fought 7-6 (7-4) 4-6 6-1 victory over Spain’s Daniel Caverzaschi after two hours and 33 minutes.

Fellow Britons Greg Slade and Andy Lapthorne also made it through to the second round of the quad singles.

Slade saved three match points before wrapping up a 6-3 4-6 7-6 (11-9) win against Brazil’s Leandro Pena, while Lapthorne – a two-time winner at the US Open – beat South African Donald Ramphadi 6-2 6-3.

In the women’s wheelchair singles, Lucy Shuker fell to a 6-3 6-0 defeat by Dutch 23-time Grand Slam champion Diede de Groot, who has yet to win a major title this season after making her comeback from hip and shoulder surgery.

Two-time defending wheelchair doubles champions Alfie Hewett and Gordon Reid got their campaign off to a winning start at Wimbledon.

The British pair beat Takuya Miki of Japan and American Casey Ratzlaff 6-3 6-2 to progress to the semi-finals.

Six of their 22 major triumphs have come at the All England Club, while Hewett has 10 Grand Slam singles titles and Reid has two.

Both continue their singles campaigns on Thursday, with defending champion Hewett taking on China’s Ji Zhenxu and Reid facing Argentine fourth seed Gustavo Fernandez.

Another all-British pair – Ben Bartram and Dahnon Ward – were also in last-eight action on Wednesday but they lost 7-5 6-4 to Ji and Israel’s Sergei Lysov.

In the women’s wheelchair doubles, Briton Lucy Shuker and her Dutch partner Diede de Groot advanced to the semi-finals with a 6-4 6-4 victory over all-Netherlands pair Lizzy de Greef and Aniek van Koot.

Another British-Dutch pairing, Cornelia Oosthuizen and Jinte Bos, could not join them in the last four as they were beaten 6-4 5-7 6-4 by Chile’s Macarena Cabrillana and Japan’s Saki Takamuro.

Greg Slade reached the semi-finals of the men’s quad wheelchair singles, defeating Chilean Francisco Cayulef 7-6 (7-2) 3-6 6-4, but 2019 finalist Andy Lapthorne was beaten 6-2 1-6 6-2 by Turkey’s Ahmet Kaplan.

Both Slade and Lapthorne are back in action on Thursday in the men’s quad wheelchair doubles.

Lapthorne is partnering Cayulef against top seeds Guy Sasson and Niels Vink of Israel and the Netherlands respectively, while Slade and South African Donald Ramphadi face Kaplan and Dutchman Sam Schroder.

Following a first set which saw six breaks of serve – four of them by the British team – the second was much more straightforward for the perennial champions, in spite of the conditions.

It capped a slightly odd day for Reid and Hewett, which they started as opponents in the singles quarter-finals.

Hewett, the second seed, triumphed 6-2 6-4. He will play fourth seed Fernandez in the singles semi-finals.

Elsewhere, Britain’s Andy Lapthorne suffered double elimination in men’s quad wheelchair events on Thursday.

The Englishman’s day started with a 6-4 6-4 defeat in the singles semi-final to top seed Niels Vink of the Netherlands.

He then suffered another last-four loss in the doubles as, along with Dutch partner Sam Schroder, he was beaten in the match tie-break by Ahmet Kaplan of Turkey and South Africa’s Donald Ramphadi, losing 6-3 2-6 10-7.

Lapthorne and Schroder, the second seeds, fought back from losing the first set by winning the second in 35 minutes, and were ahead in the first-to-10 shootout decider before suffering defeat against their unseeded opponents.