Friday 6 September 2019 15:28, UK
There was a clean sweep of success for British players at the US Open as Gordon Reid and Alfie Hewett stormed their way into their third men's doubles final while Andy Lapthorne toppled the world No 2 in less than an hour in the quad division.
In a rematch of the previous two doubles finals defending champions Reid and Hewett dropped just four points in the first four games before sealing the first set in 24 minutes. They continued their domination to speed to a 6-0 6-3 victory over French duo Stephane Houdet and Nicolas Peifer.
"It's not what we expected to happen but I'm glad we could win with that scoreline and in that style," Reid told Sky Sports. "Of course we know when we play well we can put people away but to be honest I don't think that was what happened in that first set, I think we just did the basics really well and maybe got off to a quicker start than them."
It was a match where they demonstrated the hard work they had been putting in out of competition and one where consistency was the key to their success.
"I felt we were pretty strong at the start and we didn't give away too many cheap points and when we do that we create chances so in the second set when they gave us a lot more to think about we responded well, didn't get tight and just played our game," said Hewett.
They will now face Gustavo Fernandez and Shingo Kunieda in Saturday's final and are hoping to make it a hat-trick of doubles titles in New York.
Out on court five, Lapthorne was also working his magic against David Wagner, taking 59 minutes to dispatch the American 6-1 6-1 - his most comprehensive win over Wagner in their 62 career meetings.
"Hard work pays off and to start to finally perform the way I have been doing day in, day out in practice is pretty special," said Lapthorne.
"There were glimpses of it at Wimbledon and the British Open and since then I've had a great week training in Tokyo and to translate what I've been doing on the practice court on a big stage against a good player I've put myself in a good position to hopefully move into the number two spot in the rankings."
It was a performance that saw fist-pumps a plenty from the Brit and one where he looked cool, calm and collected from start to finish.
"I don't know what it is but since the injury I've come back and I'm getting a lot more nervous than I used to," he said. "Maybe it's because when you're out because of an injury you realise how much you miss it.
"For me though it's just understanding that when I get nervous I play well so I'm not trying to get rid of the nerves, I'm just accepting them."
