Grand Slam-winning wheelchair tennis player and Season Ticket Holder Andy Lapthorne on his work with Brentford and backing for our new Head Coach...
Hello everyone and welcome back to the London Stadium after a longer than usual break from home games, with the team playing two away games followed by the October international break.
Since the last home game, we’ve seen a change in Head Coach and I’m sure everyone is excited as I am to welcome Nuno to West Ham United and to London Stadium for his first home game.
Tonight, we welcome Brentford who, in all honestym I have a big soft sport for. I train at the National Tennis Centre in Roehampton, just a stone’s throw from where old Griffin Park ground was and where Brentford’s new Gtech Community Stadium is situated.
I’ve been to many a Brentford game when they were in the lower leagues as they are effectively the local team to where I am based and to see the club come all the way from League Two up into the Premier League is fantastic, although a little strange when we play against them.
I’ve done some great work with Brentford in the Community to try and get disabled people around west London into different sports, including football and tennis.
Iould like to welcome personally our visitors’ long-time stadium announcer, player liaison and all-round ‘Mr Brentford’ Peter Gilham and Bees owner Matthew Benham, who have both done so much for the local area. Tonight, however, I’m hoping that they go home with nothing from east London!
During the break from home games I travelled to Nice in the far south of France for the final Super Series event of the 2025 Wheelchair Tennis season, which is our version of a Masters 1000 event.
There, I was competing against the best players in the world as the No4 seed in Singles and No1 seed in Doubles with my new partner Heath Davidson of Australia.
I had a tough loss in the quarter-finals in the Singles in a long, hard three-set battle with Chile’s Francisco Cayulef which just didn’t go my way.
However, in the Doubles Heath and I managed to save match points in the semi-finals and go on to win the tournament by beating Leandro Pena and Jin Woodman in the final, which was a great start for our new partnership.
My final event of the year comes at the start of November at the World Tour Finals in China.
Back to the football and West Ham and this, to me, feels like where our season starts and I’m hoping that this is a long and successful spell for our new Head Coach.
Nuno is someone I believe the fanbase can really get behind and connect with and I’m looking forward to seeing what he can do with the squad.
Right, let’s get behind the lads and help them get a three massive points!
COYI.
Lappo
*The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views and opinions of West Ham United.
