While most of Alfie Hewett’s day was unpredictable, what is for certain following his stunning comeback victory over Gustavo Fernandez is there will be a fresh name on the men’s wheelchair honours board at Wimbledon.

Five-time Grand Slam singles champion Hewett reached his first Wimbledon final after a rousing fightback against Argentina’s Fernandez, prevailing 2-6 7-6(3) 6-4, and he will face reigning Paralympic champion Shingo Kunieda on Sunday.

Despite winning a colossal 27 Grand Slam singles titles, Kunieda has never previously conquered all before him at Wimbledon, but after overpowering 2019 champion Joachim Gerard, 6-2 6-1, he now has the chance to complete his career Grand Slam.

Hewett spent close to six hours on court after the men’s doubles semi-final, which he and fellow Briton Gordon Reid eventually won 6-3 1-6 7-6(7) against Gerard and Tom Egberink, broke through the two-hour-and-45-minute barrier, finishing bang on 10pm.

While naturally thrilled with his doubles output, opportunity now knocks for Norwich-born Hewett to fulfil a lifelong dream and triumph at the All England Club in singles, ensuring his name is further etched in Wimbledon history.

“I don’t know how I’m going to sleep tonight, it’s been a wild day,” Hewett told itftennis.com.

“In terms of my singles win, I cannot really put it into words. The emotion of that match was something I have never experienced before. I have worked really hard behind the scenes to get myself into a strong position to compete here on grass.

“It was a strong performance out there and I had to show a lot of resilience to come back from the position I was in and keep myself in the game. I’m never going to give up, that’s for sure, and I couldn’t be happier.

“I’ve had some really tough challenges here this year and the final is going to be an even bigger one against Shingo.  It’s been a massive ambition of mine to win the singles title here since I started playing in 2016.  

“I want to try and put those thoughts behind me and focus on the match. I am really looking forward to it.”

Having lost the opening set in pretty convincing fashion, Hewett was also trailing Fernandez 5-1 in the second, at which stage he was staring down the barrel of defeat and flirting heavily with a semi-final exit.

However, not for the first time against Fernandez, Hewett roared back to claim victory and leave the Argentinian stunned. For context, the 24-year-old recovered a seemingly impossible position in the 2021 Roland Garros final and indeed four years earlier in Paris to advance from the semis.

It gave proceedings a real sense of occasion and was particularly fitting for the first ever men’s wheelchair match on Court No. 1, while later the show court was to host its first men’s wheelchair doubles clash. A significant day in the history of the sport.

“It’s a massive moment,” said Hewett. “In terms of exposure, you can’t really ask for much more than that. The match was entertaining and today will have brought in a lot of new fans for wheelchair tennis and I am hoping it can be a groundbreaking day.

“I hope it can nudge things in the right direction. We, as competitors, can only do our part and we sure as hell did a good job of it.”

In the women’s wheelchair semi-finals, meanwhile, the irrepressible Diede de Groot continued her staggering form as she claimed her 60th consecutive victory – she last tasted defeat in February 2021 – with a clinical 6-1 6-0 defeat of Japan’s Momoko Ohtani.

De Groot will play No. 2 seed Yui Kamiji in Saturday's final after the Japanese brushed aside Jiske Griffioen in equally convincing style, prevailing 6-1 6-2. De Groot has won her last 12 matches against Kamiji and has an overall 30-15 win-loss record against her.

The quad semi-finals, meanwhile, take place on Saturday with No. 1 seed Niels Vink, who is bidding to win back-to-back Grand Slam titles, drawing swords with Heath Davidson of Australia and American David Wagner going up against No. 2 seed Sam Schroder.