Lapthorne, Spaargaren and Bernal among Eastbourne victors

After coming from 4-1 down to take the opening set in front of a Court 2 crowd in excess of 700 people, world No.5 Lapthorne built a 4-1 lead of his own in the decider, set up match point with an ace and completed victory on his first match point.

He left Eastbourne having earned successive wins over world top four-ranked opponents following his straight-sets win over top seed and world No.2 Sam Schroder in the semi-finals.

“It was a really, tough battle, and I just tried to recover from the previous day. Playing the number one seed was really, really tough and obviously a massive emotional high, so trying to recover and come down and be ready for today was tough and I think the start showed that.

“The crowd was incredible, I really wasn’t expecting it. When you turn up for an 11am match you’re not expecting a full stadium to come and watch wheelchair tennis. To be on one of the bigger courts at the Eastbourne Open and have it full with British people supporting you is amazing and shows how far the sport has come.”

Ruben Spaargaren resigned top seed Gustavo Fernandez of Argentina to the runners-up spot for the second year in a row after the world No.9 clinched the men’s singles final 3-6, 6-3, 6-1.

Meanwhile, Angelica Bernal beat the top seed in the women’s singles final, defeating 2023 Eastbourne champion Diede de Groot 7-6(2), 7-6(2).

Lapthorne, Greg Slade and Lucy Shuker all retained titles in Eastbourne in the quad doubles and women’s doubles.

Shuker claimed her second successive women’s doubles title in Eastbourne after partnering De Groot to a 6-0, 6-1 victory over British No.2 Cornelia Oosthuizen and Chile’s Macarena Cabrillana.

Meanwhile, Lapthorne collected his second winners’ trophy of the day in the quad doubles as the British No.1and British No.2 Slade, the Paris 2024 Paralympic quad doubles silver medallists, beat Gary Cox and Oliver Cox 6-1, 6-1 in an all-British final.

British No.4 Andrew Penney and China’s Ji Zhenxu finished runners-up to Spain’s Daniel Caverzaschi and Tom Egberink of the Netherlands 6-3, 6-1 in the men’s doubles final.

Report via LTA website