HELENSBURGH'S Gordon Reid is a four-time Wimbledon winner after he and partner Alfie Hewett claimed the tournament's wheelchair doubles title at the weekend.
The pair, the most successful all-British doubles partnership in Grand Slam history, beat Tom Egberink of the Netherlands and Joachim Gerard of Belgium 7-5, 6-2 on Saturday to win their 12th Grand Slam title together.
However Reid missed out on adding this year's singles crown to his name following a 6-2, 7-6 by Gerard on Sunday.
Congratulations @JoachimGerard on a incredible victory in the #Wimbledon Men's wheelchair singles competition!
— The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge (@KensingtonRoyal) July 11, 2021
And well done @GordonReid91 on a fantastic performance today, and a great @Wimbledon tournament this year👏 pic.twitter.com/HJ8QNiucdm
After winning three back-to-back titles between 2016 and 2018, Hewett and Reid took an early 2-0 lead in this year’s doubles final but were forced to save two set points at 4-5 down before taking the opener.
However, after securing another 2-0 lead in the second set they didn’t look back, wrapping up their seventh Grand Slam title in a row in an hour and 48 minutes, much to the delight of their adoring home fans.
Reid said: “It was awesome to be back in front of the home crowd again.
"With the rain earlier and the women’s final scheduled (on Centre Court), maybe we didn’t have as big a crowd as we had hoped, but we had the die-hards out there and they were making plenty of noise and getting right behind us.
"We really enjoyed that. I think we did an amazing job of digging that first set out from two set points down and then taking control of the second set.”
Congratulations to @GordonReid91 and @alfiehewett6 on winning the men’s wheelchair doubles and to Gordon for making the men’s final - all of Helensburgh was cheering you on. You made us very proud!
— Jackie Baillie (@jackiebmsp) July 11, 2021
Hewett, who was knocked out in the quarter-final of the singles event by Belgium's Gerard, said: “It’s a great feeling, we’ve worked hard behind the scenes and Wimbledon is always that title we want to bring home for ourselves, for the people around us and to the home crowd.
"We’re just proud. It’s been a long couple of years waiting to get back out there and we did ourselves proud today.”
We'll have more reaction in this week's Advertiser - out on Thursday.
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