Lapthorne leads Hillingdon success in USA

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Eastcote’s wheelchair tennis star Andy Lapthorne has spoken of his pride at clinching another title after an impressive victory in the quad doubles final at the Cajun Classic in Louisiana.

The 24-year-old teamed up with fellow Brit Jamie Burdekin to topple top seeds and three-time Paralympic champions David Wagner and Nick Taylor in Baton Rouge.

After the first two sets were shared, Lapthorne and Burdekin emerged victorious 11-9 in the champions’ tie-break.

Lapthorne (pictured bottom right) also reached the final of the quad singles, beating world number two Dylan Alcott in the semis.

However, he then came up against an inspired world number one Wagner – who partnered the west Londoner to the Australian Open quad doubles title in January – and the west Londoner crashed to a 6-0 6-1 defeat.

Despite that setback, Lapthorne believes his latest doubles victory will give him a huge boost ahead of future events.

He said: “I’m thrilled me and Jamie could pull off a win over the world’s top pair to take down another title.

“It’s always tough to play them and it was a big performance after the disappointment of my singles final a few hours earlier.

“David was the better player on the day [in the singles final], but to beat Dylan in the semis was an important win for me and there’s plenty to build on now for the rest of the season.”

Ickenham’s Jordanne Whiley and Marc McCarroll also went deep into the tournament.

Whiley made it three finals from four events as she finished runner-up in both the women’s singles and doubles at Baton Rouge.

Having beaten fellow Brit Lucy Shuker in the singles semi-finals, Whiley lost in three sets to Germany’s world number four, and tournament top seed, Sabine Ellerbrock.

She then reached the doubles final with Dutchwoman Marjolein Buis but found the combination of singles foes Shuker and Ellerbrock too hard to overcome.

McCarroll, meanwhile, lost his opening match to France’s former world number one Michael Jeremiasz but the British number two responded by winning the men’s consolation singles event.

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