Wheelchair tennis: Super Series breakthrough for Helensburgh's British No.1

Wednesday 10 October 2012

Helensburgh's Gordon Reid has won the first Super Series title of his career at the US Open Wheelchair Championships in St Louis, where he partnered the Frenchman Stephane Houdet to victory in the doubles.

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Staff writer

It came a day after he pushed Houdet, the world No.1, to three sets in the British No.1's second Super Series singles semi-final, which has helped him reach a career-high ranking inside the world's top eight and earned a place in the year-end NEC Wheelchair Masters for the first time.

Houdet and Reid, the top seeds, eased into the men's doubles final by beating Argentina's Agustin Ledesma and Eliecer Oquendo of Colombia 6-0, 6-3 and then came through a tough opening set against the second seeds, Gustavo Fernandez of Argentina and Michael Jeremiasz of France, to win Sunday's final 7-5, 6-1. Reid won his first two singles matches against Brazil's Pedro Rocha and Yoann Quilliou of France for the loss of just three games in total, then set about trying to upset Houdet. He had taken Houdet to three sets twice in eight contests but, after losing to the Frenchman in straight sets in their first two matches this season, he came a step closer to beating him, eventually going down 6-4, 6-7, 6-3. Houdet went on to win the final without dropping a game."After starting my two weeks in the USA with singles and doubles at the PTR Championships, I'm delighted with my first Super Series doubles title," said Reid, who began the tournament in St Louis on his 21st birthday. "I was confident going into the singles after reaching my first Super Series singles final at the British Open in July and came pretty close to beating the world No.1, so it's been a great fortnight and I've come out of it with a new career-high ranking."Reid had dropped one place to No.10 despite retaining his singles title at the PTR Championships just over a week ago, falling behind Belgium's Joachim Gerard. His progress to the last four in St Louis took him back above Gerard and another Frenchman, Nicolas Peifer, to No.8. It makes him the joint highest-ranked British men's player in the sport, alongside the now-retired Jayant Mistry.He follows Mistry as the only British players to qualify for the singles at the NEC Wheelchair Masters in Belgium, the year-end highlight for the world's top eight singles players. Mistry contested the event four times between 2000 and 2004. Reid has also qualified to contest the year-end Invacare Doubles Masters, the year-end highlight for the world's top doubles players, for the fourth successive time.

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Wheelchair tennis: Super Series breakthrough for Helensburgh's British No.1

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