Three for Three: Wagner wins French Open doubles again

David Wagner made it a hat trick of French Open Quad doubles titles over the weekend to bring his illustrious career tally in the discipline to 20. 

Wagner partnered Great Britain's Andy Lapthorne to a 7-6(1), 4-6, 10-7 win over Dylan Alcott of Australia and Sam Schroder of the Netherlands on Saturday to win in Paris for the third time, having claimed the doubles titile in each year since the clay-court Grand Slam added a Quad discipline in 2019.

The group represents the four highest-ranked players in the world, and Wagner has now won a title in Paris with each: winning with Alcott in 2019 and Schroder in 2020.  Wagner and Lapthorne have now won six Grand Slam titles together as a team, and the win helped Lapthorne secure the career Grand Slam in doubles. 

"I want to thank Roland Garros for giving me the wild card," Wagner said in the post-match trophy presentation. "That was awesome. It's an honor to be here and it's always great to play in front of great spectators."

In the singles event, Wagner was beaten in the semifinals by  Alcott, who went on to win the title. 

Also representing Team USA in Paris was Dana Mathewson, who made her French Open debut as the first American woman to ever compete in the wheelchair event at the clay-court major. The world No. 10 accounted herself well in a pair of quarterfinal defeats, losing to South Africa's Kgothatso Montjane in the last eight and partnering her in a doubles quarterfinal defeat to top seeds Diede de Groot and Aniek van Koot, the eventual champions.

"Merci, Roland Garros ⁣et au revoir Paris!" Mathewson wrote on Instagram. "Tournaments like this remind you why you play, and inspire you for more."