Gordon Reid has won the Paralympic Games wheelchair tennis singles title.
The 24-year-old, who can regularly be found honing his skills at the University of Stirling’s Gannochy Sports Centre, beat fellow British player and doubles partner Alfie Hewett in straight sets in yesterday’s final in Rio, winning 6-2 6-1 in 54 minutes.
Reid, who adds the singles gold medal to the silver he won alongside Hewett in the doubles on Friday, has enjoyed a sensational year on court. Andrew Baxter profiled the new Paralympic champion for Brig.
A version of this article was initially published in the September 2016 edition of Brig.
Gordon Reid has had a fantastic couple of years. With success in both the wheelchair singles and wheelchair doubles, he is forging his legacy in tennis history.
There are few better players in the world right now than Reid. His world ranking of number two in the singles is matched by his number one doubles ranking. This dominance across both formats of the game has seen him rack up Grand Slam victory after Grand Slam victory.
In the doubles, Reid hasn’t failed to qualify for a Grand Slam final since Wimbledon 2014. During that time, he has picked up two French Open titles, a US Open title, and of course the Wimbledon title this year. Partnered with Alfie Hewett, they beat the French pairing of Stephane Houdet and Nicolas Piefer 4-6, 6-1, 7-6, to round off a sensational summer for British tennis.
Here in Rio, Hewett and Reid went on to win a valiant silver medal in the doubles, losing to the same French duo they defeated at Wimbledon. Despite fighting back from a set down, they could not contain Houdet and Piefer, who triumphed 6-1 in the third set after almost two hours of play to claim gold.
In the singles, Reid has reached the final of all three Grand Slams so far in 2016. A victory in the Australian Open final was followed up a narrow defeat in the French Open, but his memorable Wimbledon win saw him win the first ever wheelchair singles championship at SW19. Reid didn’t drop a set throughout the entire tournament, and beat Sweden’s Stefan Olsson in straight sets to carry on this dominance.
Now, in Rio, Reid has claimed his first Paralympic Gold medal. He missed out at London 2012, losing to the Dutch player Maikel Scheffers, but with four more years experience under his belt there was little reason to think that Reid would leave the Games without a singles medal.
At just 24 years of age, too, Reid has a long career still ahead of him, and in his current vein of form there is every suggestion that he may become the most decorated British tennis player in history.
His story is another example of the success that Scottish tennis is enjoying at the minute. Andy Murray is the poster-boy for this success, clinching his second Wimbledon title this summer, but the likes of Jamie Murray have also been successful in recent years.
Stirling University had a successful Olympics, with Duncan Scott picking up silver in the pool, and Gordon Reid has now added a gold in the wheelchair tennis.
[…] was further success for Stirling on the night, as former tennis scholar Gordon Reid – featured in the Freshers edition of Brig – took home the Para-Sport Athlete of the Year award, after a year which has seen him claim […]