Alfie Hewett and Gordon Reid closed in on a British hat-trick as they cemented their place in the LTA’s Lexus British Wheelchair Open men's doubles final after taking out two pairings on Day 4, writes Taylor Toney-Green. 

Reid looked ahead to the prospect of completing a hat-trick of titles in Britain: “It would mean a lot. We’ve had a great summer winning at Queen's and Wimbledon.

“The support there was fantastic, but the diehards are the ones that have come to Nottingham and we’d love to get a win tomorrow in front of them.”

Long before talk of finals, Hewett and Reid began their day beating Nicolas Charrier and Sergei Lysov in just under an hour 6-2 6-0 to advance.

Feeling fresh after their routine morning victory, the duo brought confidence into their semi-final clash against the Dutch pairing of Maikel Scheffers and Ruben Spaargaren.

These two teams last met in Melbourne at the beginning of the year, where Hewett and Reid would raise their 16th Grand Slam title after winning in straight sets. 

The same pattern looked to be occurring as the Brits took the opener 6-1, as they did in Australia.

However, the Dutch duo seemed to have learnt from their mistakes Down Under and pushed Hewett and Reid throughout the second set.

Their unrelenting pressure took the Brits all the way to a tiebreak, but the world No.1 doubles pairing held firm and closed out the match after two hours 6-1, 7-6 (1).

Reid acknowledged the challenge they’d faced: “I thought they played great, especially in the second set. They pushed us all the way with a set point, so we had to dig deep and find something in the end.”

The British pairing haven’t lost a match together on court since the 2022 US Open final over 328 days ago – in that time they’ve won three Grand Slams together to take their total to 18. 

“There’s lots of things that contribute to the success,” Hewett said.

“We’ve been with each other now since 2015, so you’d hope we’d know each other’s game styles and movement patterns, which is a big part of the doubles. 

“We’ve had some unforgettable memories and we hope to make some more tomorrow.”

To find out more about wheelchair tennis, check out the LTA's website