Alfie Hewett dreaming of Paralympic success after winning British Open doubles title
Alfie Hewett, right, celebrates winning the British Open doubles title with Gordon Reid. - Credit: Archant
Teenager Alfie Hewett says the biggest doubles title win of his young career has got him dreaming about medal success at next year's Paralympic Games in Rio.
The Norfolk 17-year-old teamed up with the nation's top-ranked player Gordon Reid to win the British Open Wheelchair Tennis Championships men's doubles final on Saturday, beating French second seeds Michael Jeremiasz and Nicolas Peifer 7-6 (4), 6-4.
With 416 days to go before action starts in Rio, Hewett was delighted to hit such a triumphant high at the Nottingham Tennis Centre with his potential partner for the games.
'In terms of the future it is massive and this is probably the best we have played together as a team,' said world number one junior Hewett, who is part of the Tennis Foundation's wheelchair tennis performance programme.
'We have played against the best teams in the world and it is not going to get much better than that. We felt we dominated at this tournament, it was only when we slacked off the pace that our opponents managed to take games away from us.
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'Looking forward to Rio this is huge, Jeremiasz and Peifer will most probably be one of the hot favourites to medal. For us to win this now gives us a great start in developing tactics and our game for next year.
'Our partnership hasn't been confirmed for anything but the way we have played this week has hopefully nailed it on the head.
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'There is no reason we can't win a medal, we have shown this week that and we have beaten teams that have won Grand Slams, Super Series and Masters titles.
'We have so much to look forward to.'
On the way to reaching the final, Hewett and Reid got past Britain's other potential Rio pairing of David Phillipson and Marc McCarroll and upstaged top seeds Joachim Gerard and Stephane Houdet 5-7, 6-2, 7-6 (4) in a three-hour epic on Friday.
'To come here with Gordon, a fellow Brit, and take on the best in the world, I knew we had to be at our best,' said Hewett, who made his debut at Wimbledon a week earlier.
'I'm over the moon with the title win.'
