GORDON Reid’s last tournament before the Tokyo Paralympics saw the Rio singles gold and doubles silver medallist extend his formidable doubles record with fellow Brit Alfie Hewett.
The pair dominated the men’s doubles at the Nottingham Tennis Centre, beating Spanish and Dutch partnerships that they would face in Tokyo in straight sets before coming up against French second seeds Stephane Houdet and Nicolas Peifer in the final.
With Houdet and Peifer having beaten Reid and Hewett to men’s doubles gold medal in Rio, the Brits made it four wins in five matches against the French duo this season as the 12-time Grand Slam champions wrapped up a 6-2, 6-3 victory for their second British Open Super Series title.
“It means a lot,” said the former Hermitage Academy pupil afterwards.
“It’s our home Super Series and it’s the first time we’ve won it together since 2015, so it’s good to come back and get this title in our last tournament before heading off to Tokyo for the Paralympics.
“It’s obviously good for the confidence as we keep building towards that.”
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The tournament’s top seeds cruised past Spain’s Daniel Caverzaschi and Martin de la Puente 6-2, 7-5 in the quarter-finals before seeing off the spirited challenge of Dutchmen Tom Egberink and Maikel Scheffers 6-4, 7-5 in the last four.
World number five Reid recovered from 2-0 down in the second set of his singles quarter-final against Belgian world No.3 Joachim Gerard to win 6-3, 6-2 and avenge his loss to Gerard in their recent Wimbledon final two weeks ago.
“I’ve never thought I played badly in the Wimbledon final,” 29-year-old Reid continued.
“I just didn’t execute the plan that I needed to.
“I had a slightly different approach today and in the second set I upped my level from 2-0 down and was really happy with the performance from there.”
Reid is now fully immersed in his preparations for the Paralympics in Tokyo, where the wheelchair tennis tournament takes place between August 27 and September 4, and where he’s hoping to match the men’s singles gold he won in Rio.
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