Alfie Hewett and Gordon Reid, two of the top wheelchair tennis players from Britain, started their quest for a sixth wheelchair doubles title at the US Open with a strong performance. In their opening match at Flushing Meadows, they defeated the French player Stephane Houdet and China’s Zhenxu Ji with a score of 6-3, 6-1. This victory earned them a place in the semi-finals, where they will face Japan’s Tokito Oda and Argentina’s Gustavo Fernandez, the 2025 champions at the same tournament. Hewett, 28, and Reid, 34, have already won 25 Grand Slam doubles titles together and will begin competing in singles events on Wednesday. Wheelchair tennis is a Paralympic sport where players use wheelchairs to hit the ball over a net, following similar rules to traditional tennis. The US Open is one of the four Grand Slam tournaments in the sport, and it is considered the final major of the season for many players. In other matches on Tuesday, Britain’s Andy Lapthorne had a successful start in the quad wheelchair doubles, which is a category for players with limited mobility in all four limbs. Lapthorne and his South African partner, Leon Els, defeated American duo David Wagner and Andrew Bogdanov with a score of 7-6 (7-5), 6-1. However, not all British teams had a good day. Greg Slade and Australian Heath Davidson were defeated 6-0, 6-0 by the top-seeded pair, Dutch player Niels Vink and Israeli player Guy Sasson. Vink and Sasson have been dominant this year, winning all three Grand Slam tournaments in 2026 and the last six major events overall. Their performance highlights their continued dominance in wheelchair tennis and sets the stage for a highly competitive US Open.