Andy Lapthorne

Early life Lapthorne has cerebral palsy, and uses a wheelchair.

Wheelchair tennis career Lapthorne took up the sport 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. 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. 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

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)

Personal life Lapthorne is an ambassador of Brentford 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.