GORDON REID has racked up an incredible 20th Grand Slam wheelchair doubles title.
The Helensburgh hero partnered fellow Brit Alfie Hewett to victory at the Australian Open in Melbourne on Friday - the duo's 16th Grand Slam triumph.
The British pair defeated Maikel Scheffers and Ruben Spaargaren of the Netherlands 6-1, 6-2 in one hour and three minutes in the final at Melbourne Park.
It’s a fourth successive Australian Open doubles title for Reid and Hewett – and the fifth time the former Hermitage Academy pupil has lifted the tournament’s doubles trophy.
Contesting their 14th successive Grand Slam final, second seeds Hewett and Reid raced to a 4-0 lead over Scheffers and Spaargaren before wrapping up the opening set in 27 minutes as Spaargaren sprayed a forehand wide of its intended target.
The competition's second seeds had beaten Japan's Takashi Sanada and Daisuke Arai in the last four to reach the final, after seeing off Belgium's Joachim Gerard and Takuya Miki of Japan in their opening match.
The pair were beaten finalists at both Wimbledon and the US Open, ending a run of 10 successive slam titles, but they were dominant again in Melbourne.
A week ago Hewett and Reid, who are supported by the LTA’s Elite Wheelchair Programme, beat Scheffers and Spaargaren in a deciding match tie-break in the semi-finals of the Melbourne Open Super Series tournament, but they showed no signs of being taken to such extremes this time.
They won 12 points without reply for a 5-1 second set lead before Reid served out the match on the third championship point after a double fault on the first.
Reid, who struggled last year with injury but is fully fit again, said: “I think that’s exactly the kind of performance we’re looking for. Especially to do it in that pressure moment in a final like that is really confidence building for us.
“I think last year we had to scrap our way through quite a lot of matches. This year we wanted to, right from the start of the year, try and take matches by the scruff of the neck and try to dictate them.
"I think that’s exactly what we did today. We’re really proud of that performance.”
The 31-year-old, who now has 22 major titles to his name across singles and doubles, added: “It’s never easy but if we can play like we did today and go on court with the mindset and the intention we had today then it certainly can be slightly easier that we sometimes make it.
"We’re really pleased and there are lots of positives to take away.
"Obviously, there are always things that we can try and improve on as well, which is another thing we’ll take out of the day, but overall we’re really happy.
"As a lefty, a slider out wide is my favourite serve, so it was good to finish on one of those.”
Hewett will bid for a first Australian Open singles title on Saturday when he takes on 16-year-old Japanese player Tokito Oda.
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