Norfolk's Alfie Hewett books place in wheelchair singles final at French Open

He's looking for his fourth title in the singles at Roland Garros

Hewett at the French Open in 2021
Author: Eleanor Crooks, PAPublished 9th Jun 2023

Norflk's Alfie Hewett will play for a fourth French Open wheelchair singles title.

The world number one eased to a 6-2 6-2 victory over Argentinian Gustavo Fernandez to turn the tables, having heavily lost to the third seed in the semi-finals last year.

Hewett, from Norwich, is chasing three-successive slam singles crowns having also won in New York and Melbourne, and it will be 17-year-old Japanese player Tokito Oda on the other side of the net again.

The pair are one and two in the world rankings but Hewett has won all three meetings this year, including at the Australian Open for the loss of only four games.

The 25-year-old said: "I just had a quick word with my coach. He said that we've been working together for four years now and it's probably up there with one of my best performances, with the scale of the situation and the occasion and last year's history here.

"So, there's one more match to go and I can now focus on that, but I can take a lot of confidence away from today."

Henry Searle's strong run in the juniors ended with a 7-6 (3) 6-3 loss to third seed Dino Prizmic in the quarter-finals of the boys' singles.

Searle was the first British boy to make it to the last eight since Kyle Edmund 10 years ago and was looking to become the first since Andy Murray in 2005 to reach the last four.

But Croatian Prizmic, who was watched by Goran Ivanisevic, already has a top-300 ranking in the men's game and, although Searle put up a good fight, he was unable to claim victory.

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