Alfie Hewett[1]OBE (born 6 December 1997 in Norwich, Norfolk) is a British professional wheelchair tennis player.[2][3] He is the current world No. 1 in both singles and doubles.
He has won a total of 30 Grand Slam titles: 9 in singles and 21 in doubles, partnering Gordon Reid on every occasion. The pair completed the men's doubles 'set' of all four tournaments in a calendar year in 2021 (becoming the first to do so since Stéphane Houdet first achieved the feat in 2014 with two partners) and won Paralympic gold in men's doubles at the 2024 Summer Paralympics, having been silver medalists in the two previous Games. Hewett is also a two-time Paralympic silver medalist in singles (2016, losing to Reid, and 2024). He won the Wheelchair Tennis Masters in both singles and doubles in 2017, 2021 and 2023.
Hewett was born with a congenital heart defect that required surgery at six months, and suffered from Legg–Calvé–Perthes disease, a condition that inhibits blood flow from the pelvis to the hip joint. His ability to walk was severely impaired and from the age of six he has been a wheelchair user. Though able to walk, Hewett is not fully mobile in the conventional sense and cannot do able-bodied sports.[4]
Hewett won the 2017 NEC Wheelchair Tennis Masters in Loughborough, UK. He ended 2017 ranked No 2 in the world, then a career-high.
On 29 January 2018 Hewett became the world number 1.[7]
In March 2018 Hewett won his first Super Series singles title at the Cajun Classic in Baton Rouge, USA.
On 2 September 2018 he claimed his second Super Series title at the US Open USTA Wheelchair Championships in St. Louis. Later that month Hewett won the singles title at the US Open as well as the doubles title with Reid.
In September 2019 he successfully defended both his singles and, with Reid, doubles titles at the US Open.[8]
In 2020 Hewett won the French Open singles title in three sets against Joachim Gérard and partnered Reid to win all three available Grand Slam doubles titles at the Australian Open, US Open and French Open, with the Wimbledon Championships cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.[9][10]
After winning a silver medal in the men's doubles with Reid at the 2020 Summer Paralympics[11] and losing the bronze medal singles match to Reid, world number 2[11] Hewett spoke about his Paralympic future being "out of his hands",[11] due to a review into whether his disability is severe enough to qualify him to play in a wheelchair under the 2019 revision of International Tennis Federation rules.[11] Hewett was allowed to continue his tennis career after an alteration to the new ITF rules in November 2021.[12]
Hewett kicked off 2024 by winning a fifth Australian Open doubles title in a row with Reid.[14] In May 2024 Hewett was part of the Great Britain team which won the World Team Cup for a second successive year beating Spain 2-0 in the final of the event held in Turkey. It was the team's fourth win in the competition since 2015.[15]
Hewett and Reid won a fifth straight French Open in June with a 6-1 6-4 victory over second-seeded Japanese duo Takuya Miki and Tokito Oda in the final.[16]
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