GORDON REID will be a three-time Paralympic medallist after he and his doubles partner Alfie Hewett won through to the gold medal match in Tokyo.

Reid and Hewett secured their place in the final after beating Japanese third seeds Shingo Kunieda and Takashi Sanada 6-2, 6-1 on Tuesday.

Rio silver medallists Hewett and Reid produced their latest stunning display of doubles tennis to beat Kunieda and Sanada in an hour and 27 minutes.

A Sanada double fault had ended the first set, and he was forced into a decisive backhand error on match point, as Hewett and Reid’s movement and ability to attack their opponents from all areas of the court proved key.  

They will now play the French duo of Stephane Houdet and Nicolas Peifer in a repeat of the Rio gold medal match five years ago. 

Reid, who won singles gold in Brazil in 2016, said: “We’re really, really happy at the moment. That match couldn’t have gone a lot better for us.

"We executed our game plan and our tactics really well and we didn’t let up at any point, especially towards the end when sometimes you can get a bit nervy.

"But that’s probably when we played some of our best tennis. We’re really pleased, but we’ve done nothing yet because we came here for the gold and we’ve still got to earn that.” 

With Hewett and Reid’s only previous match against Kunieda and Sanada ending in a three-set loss at the 2019 Japan Open, Reid credited the amount of work that has gone into making the partnership that has won the last seven Grand Slam titles.

The former Hermitage Academy pupil added: “We’ve evolved so much as a team since then, we’ve improved so much. We need to give a lot of credit right now to Martyn Whait (coach) and Sarah Cecil (sports psychologist) from the LTA.

"They’ve been working with us specifically and Martyn’s been up into the wee hours of the night looking at all the different teams and working out some tactics to use against them.

"He’s been spot on the last two days and has really given us a focus on how to approach the matches, so big thanks to him.” 

Hewett, who joins Reid in Wednesday’s men’s singles quarter-finals before they pair up for Friday’s men’s doubles gold medal match, said:  “We were buzzing around the court and had so much energy and didn’t really come off the gas at any stage.

"I think we just take each match as it comes, really.

"Each match is different so we have to prepare different ways, but we have our own routines as individuals and we come together as a pair.

"We’ve been playing together now for seven or eight years, so we’re pretty familiar with what we bring to the court.

"We know when we’re feeling it and today was one of those matches. 

“Each day is different. The gold medal match, we could turn up and it could either be great or we might be not be playing some of our best tennis.

"But we’ve learnt over the years to deal with many different occasions and scenarios and we’ll be prepared for whatever happens on the day.”