Gordon Reid and Alfie Hewett reach Paralympic tennis final

The former Hermitage Academy pupil’s dreams of a third singles medal are over after he lost to Argentina’s Gustavo Fernandez in the quarter-finals on Wednesday.

But in the doubles, his hopes of glory alongside fellow Brit Alfie Hewett are still very much alive after the pair came through their semi-final later in the day in straight sets.

The duo have won 21 Grand Slam doubles titles together, but have never brought home Paralympic gold.

They had to dig deep to defeat home favourites and fourth seeds Federic Cattaneo and Stephane Houdet 6-4, 6-3 in an hour and 47 minutes at Roland-Garros.

The 2016 and 2020 silver medallists will now compete for their first Paralympic wheelchair tennis doubles gold medal, in the hope of becoming the first men's doubles team to complete the career 'golden slam'.

Hewett and Reid have 21 Grand Slam titles together, and have won the French Open at the same venue for the last five years in a row.

But the Paralympic gold would be the icing on the cake for their incredible doubles partnership.

"We’re used to these courts, we’re used to these conditions," Reid added. "Obviously it’s a slightly different look at the moment with it being the Paralympics but we’ve had great results here.

"We’ve done everything we can to prepare as best as possible for this moment and we’re going to leave everything out there to get over the final step."

In the final they will play Japanese second seeds Takuya Miki and Tokito Oda.

Hewett and Reid have beaten the duo in four of their last five Grand Slam finals - including Roland Garros this year.

"It was electric in there," Hewett said. "This is probably the first time we’ve had the crowd against us – usually at Wimbledon they’re for us, so it was different, but I loved it.

"It’s something that we thrive in. We want to promote the sport as much as we can and there’s no better way to do it than at a Paralympic Games in front of thousands.

"Regardless of what happens, we can be proud that we’ve made it this far again, but I know we’ll be disappointed if we don’t come away with the gold medal.

"It’s something we’ve been working very hard for. It’s all about going for the win."

While it was a far from comfortable win for the Brits, they will take great encouragement from their performance on the return.

In a nervy opening set on serve, they broke the French side five times, needing just one hold from Hewett to clinch a much-needed first set advantage.

The world No. 1 and No. 2 men’s wheelchair doubles players seemed to have all the momentum in their favour as they moved 2-0 up in the second, but Cattaneo and Houdet weren’t going down without a fight.

With the partisan Parisian crowd going wild for every point, the French partnership seemed to be equal to everything the Brits threw at them through the next four games and pulled themselves back into the match at 3-3.

In the business end of the match, Hewett showed exactly why he’s the top-ranked player in the world: a hold to love steadied the ship before some impressive shot-making from Hewett, matched with a winner from Reid to set up a third break point of the game, helped the Brits move 5-3 in front.

Reid’s serve hadn’t been the most consistent throughout the match, but with a place in the final on the line, he dealt with the pressure, and it was the 2016 singles gold medallist who eventually wrapped up the win with an incredible drop shot half volley on their second match point.

The gold medal match will be played on Court Philippe-Chatrier at Roland-Garros on Friday.

Earlier in the day, Reid had been left facing a huge uphill struggle after failing to win a game in his first set against Fernandez.

He fought back strongly in the secon, and came within a whisker of taking the last eight tie to a deciding set, only for Fernandez to edge it 7-6 (5) and book his place against Oda in the semi-finals.

In the other last four tie, Alfie Hewett will face Martin de la Puente of Spain.