Andrew David LapthorneGRO reference: November 1990, Vol. 12, Page 2430 (born 11 October 1990) is a British wheelchair tennis player. He took up wheelchair tennis in 2005, and entered the quad division in 2008. He is active in both singles and doubles tournaments, and has 17 grand slam titles in singles and doubles. He competed at his first Summer Paralympics at London 2012 in the quad singles and in the quad doubles, in which he won a silver medal and is now a four-time Paralympic medallist and British no.1 Quad tennis player, who started playing wheelchair tennis at the age of 10.
Early life Lapthorne has cerebral palsy, and uses a wheelchair. He can walk for limited periods, but not very far and the condition has left him unable to straighten his arms fully. He joined a disabled football team at the age of eight, and also tried wheelchair basketball.
Wheelchair tennis career Lapthorne took up wheelchair tennis full-time in 2005 after playing at a sports camp for people in wheelchairs. He was spotted by coaches from the Tennis Federation, and became a professional player. In 2008, he registered in the quad division and in his first quad tournament he reached the semi-final of the 2008 Nottingham Indoor event. In 2009 he reached the finals of his first tournaments including defeating Johan Andersson, who was the silver medallist at the 2008 Summer Paralympics, in the quarter finals of the Florida Open.
Lapthorne began teaming up with Peter Norfolk of Great Britain, to compete in the quad doubles. They appeared at the Florida Open in 2009 for the first time, and defeated the reigning Olympic champions in the first round before going on to win the tournament. Lapthorne won his first singles title during the same year, at the Wroclaw Cup, and also won the singles title at Prague Cup Czech Indoor resulting in completing his first full season as a quad player ranked ninth in the world.
In 2010, Lapthorne won both the Melbourne Open singles titles and doubles alongside Norfolk. He reached the final of the Sydney Open and regularly appeared in the quarter finals of the year's Super Series tournaments. His world ranking in 2010 improved to number six, and he won the end of season Camozzi Doubles Masters, teaming with Norfolk once more. In 2011, he appeared at a Grand Slam for the first time, winning the doubles tournament with Norfolk which increased their ranking to number one in the world. It was the first occasion that an all-British pair had won a quad doubles grand slam, as the duo defeated David Wagner and Nick Taylor to win the title. It marked the fourth victory that Lapthorne and Norfolk had during the previous two seasons over Wagner and Taylor, the reigning Paralympics champions. They retained the title a year later.
Lapthorne was selected for the Great Britain squad for the 2012 Summer Paralympics in London in both the quad singles and quad doubles tennis events. Channel 4 featured Norfolk in a special aired on 7 August 2012, prior to the London Paralympics. Lapthorne was also featured in the special resulting in The Daily Telegraph describing him as "the young pretender, talented, aggressive and gobby in the extreme". At the time of the Paralympics, he was ranked fourth in the world in the singles, and number one in the doubles with Norfolk. In the singles, he was drawn against Anders Hard in the first round, while he and Norfolk received a bye to the semi-finals of the doubles tournament. He was knocked out of the singles competition in the first round by Hard, with a score of 7–5, 3–6, 3–6. However, in the doubles tournament he reached the final against Taylor and Wagner. Before the match he received good luck messages from the West Ham football team, and fellow tennis player Andy Murray. The British pair lost the match, 2–6, 7–5, 2–6, but Lapthorne and Norfolk won a silver medal each in the process.
In 2014 Lapthorne went on to win the US open singles title. In January 2019, Lapthorne and partner David Wagner were beaten in the quad wheelchair doubles final in the Australian Open.
Playing with Israeli Guy Sasson at the 2024 French Open, the two made it to the finals where they were defeated by Niels Vink and Sam Schröder of the Netherlands.
Lapthorne won a silver medal at the 2024 Summer Paralympics in the quad doubles playing alongside Gregory Slade.
Career statistics
Grand Slam performance timelines
Quad Singles
Tournament2011201220132014201520162017201820192020202120222023202420252026 Australian OpenRRRRFRRRRRRFRRRRFSFSFQFQFQF1R0 / 16 French OpenNot held ARRSFQFSFQFQFQF0 / 7 WimbledonNot heldFNHSFQFQFSFQF0 / 6 US Open ANHRRWRRNHFRRWRRSFQFSFNHSF2 / 12
Grand Slam finals Quad singles: (2 titles, 5 runner-ups)
Result Year Tournament Surface Opponent Score Win 2014 US Open Hard David Wagner 7–5, 6–2 Loss 2017 Australian Open Hard Dylan Alcott 2–6, 2–6 Loss 2017 US Open Hard David Wagner 5–7, 6–3, 4–6 Loss 2019 Wimbledon Grass Dylan Alcott 0–6, 2–6 Win 2019 US Open (2) Hard Dylan Alcott 6–1, 6–0 Loss 2020 Australian Open Hard Dylan Alcott 0–6, 4–6 Loss 2020 French Open Clay Dylan Alcott 2–6, 2–6
Quad doubles: 31 (16 titles, 15 runner-ups)
Result Year Tournament Surface Partner Opponents ScoreWin2011Australian OpenHard Peter Norfolk Nicholas Taylor David Wagner6–3, 6–3Win2012Australian Open (2)Hard Peter Norfolk David Wagner Noam Gershony6–4, 6–2Loss2013Australian Open Hard Anders Hard David Wagner Nicholas Taylor2–6, 3–6Loss2013US OpenHard Lucas Sithole Nicholas Taylor David Wagner0–6, 6–2, 3–6Win2014Australian Open (3)Hard David Wagner Dylan Alcott Lucas Sithole6–4, 6–4Loss2014US OpenHard Lucas Sithole Nicholas Taylor David Wagner3–6, 5–7Win2015Australian Open (4)Hard David Wagner Dylan Alcott Lucas Sithole6–0, 3–6, 6–2Loss2015US OpenHard Dylan Alcott Nicholas Taylor David Wagner6–4, 2–6, [7–10]Loss2016Australian OpenHard Dylan Alcott Lucas Sithole David Wagner1–6, 3–6Win2017Australian Open (5)Hard David Wagner Dylan Alcott Heath Davidson6–3, 6–3 Win2017US OpenHard David Wagner Dylan Alcott Bryan Barten7–5, 6–2Loss2018Australian OpenHard David Wagner Dylan Alcott Heath Davidson0–6, 7–6(7–5), [6–10] Win2018US Open (2)Hard David Wagner Dylan Alcott Bryan Barten 3–6, 6–0, [10–4]Loss2019Australian OpenHard David Wagner Dylan Alcott Heath Davidson Win2019WimbledonGrass Dylan Alcott Koji Sugeno David Wagner6–2, 7–6(7–4) Win2019US Open (3)Hard Dylan Alcott Bryan Barten David Wagner6–7(5–7), 6–1, [10–6]Loss2020Australian OpenHard David Wagner Dylan Alcott Heath Davidson4–6, 3–6 Win2020US Open (4)Hard Dylan Alcott Sam Schröder David Wagner3–6, 6–4, [10–8]Loss2020French OpenClay Dylan Alcott Sam Schröder David Wagner6–4, 5–7, [8–10]Loss2021Australian Open Hard David Wagner Dylan Alcott Heath Davidson2–6, 6–3, [7–10]Win2021French OpenClay David Wagner Dylan Alcott Sam Schröder7–6(7–1), 4–6, [10–7] Win2021Wimbledon (2)Grass David Wagner Dylan Alcott Sam Schröder6–1, 3–6, 6–4Win2022Australian Open (6)Hard David Wagner Niels Vink Sam Schröder2–6, 6–4, [10–7]Loss2022WimbledonGrass David Wagner Niels Vink Sam Schröder2–6, 6–4, [10–7]Win2023French Open (2)Clay Donald Ramphadi Heath Davidson Robert Shaw1–6, 6–2, [10–3]Loss2023US OpenHard Donald Ramphadi Sam Schroder Niels Vink1–6, 2–6Win2024Australian Open (7)Hard David Wagner Donald Ramphadi Guy Sasson6–4, 3–6, [10–2]Loss2024French OpenClay Guy Sasson Niels Vink Sam Schröder 6–7(9–11), 1–6Loss2024WimbledonGrass Guy Sasson Niels Vink Sam Schröder6–3, 6–7(3–7), 3–6Win2025Australian Open (8)Hard Sam Schröder Guy Sasson Niels Vink6–1, 6–4Loss2026Australian OpenHard Heath Davidson Guy Sasson Niels Vink3–6, 1–6
Personal life Lapthorne is an ambassador of Brentford F.C. He is a fan of West Ham United F.C. He lives in Eastcote, Greater London. He has a brother called Samuel.
Lapthorne was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 2025 Birthday Honours for services to tennis.
See also List of quad wheelchair tennis champions
References
External links