Hewitt fired up for singles title bid

Alfie Hewett is fired up for another tilt at a first Wimbledon singles title that he also knows could be his last.

Britain’s biggest wheelchair tennis star is in the best form of his life, having reached four successive slam singles finals, winning back-toback French Open titles, and six doubles crowns in a row with Scot Gordon Reid.

Hewett, ranked second in the world behind Japan’s Shingo Kunieda, is relishing being back at the All England Club, where he is yet to go beyond the semi-finals in singles.

He said: “There will be a very high expectation of mine to go and win it.

“It will be extremely tough because I do think other players are probably more favoured in terms of their confidence levels and their styles on grass but I’ve been playing some of my best tennis and that’s all I can focus on. Hopefully it can go my way.”

Hewett is only 23 but his career has been on borrowed time for nearly two years since the International Tennis Federation changed the rules on classification and ruled that the player’s disability – he was diagnosed as a child with Perthes disease, which affects the hip and pelvis – was not severe enough.

With no other option for disabled athletes within tennis other than the wheelchair category, Hewett was staring at an extremely premature end to his career.

The rules were supposed to come into force for 2021 but that was put back following the coronavirus pandemic and the postponement of the Paralympic Games, and Hewett will be able to compete in Tokyo.

New hope has also arrived in the form of sport-specific research being done into the tennis classification system – previously it was based on para-athletics – that could lead to a rethink.

That Hewett has managed to play his best tennis with a sword effectively hanging over his head is testament to his mental strength. He is renowned for his comebacks and recovered from 1-5 in the deciding set of his French Open semi-final against Gustavo Fernandez, saving three match points.

The ellesse athlete said: “It’s difficult. I’ve gone through stages, whether it was angry, frustrated, unsure. It’s what I get up for in the mornings; to train, to compete, to play at the slams, to be the best wheelchair tennis player.”