Brits Alfie Hewett and Gordon Reid both booked a place in a Grand Slam singles semi-final for the first time since the 2017 US Open on Thursday after they triumphed on the opening day of wheelchair tennis action at the French Open.

Hewett beat world No.3 Stephane Houdet of France 6-2, 7-6(4), while Reid earned a steely 3-6, 6- 4, 6-3 victory over world No.4 Joachim Gerard of Belgium on a remarkable day for the top two men’s players on the LTA’s GB Wheelchair Tennis World Class Performance Programme.

Hewett, the 2017 Roland Garros champion, raced into a 3-0 lead against Houdet and left by a set and 1-0 when the Frenchman needed time out to repair a puncture. When the match resumed Houdet went on to open up a 5-2 lead, but Hewett calmly found his way back, saving a set point at 4-5 down before going on to reach his second Roland Garros singles semi-final.

Hewett also beat Houdet just over two weeks ago in the match that earned Great Britain victory in men’s final at the BNP Paribas World Team Cup. Hewett and Reid finished the event unbeaten in all their singles rubbers. Hewett, the reigning US Open champion, said: “I really felt like I was playing well. Then at the start of the second I was still playing good shots, but I was just starting to feel that little bit of an energy drop. The tyre was maybe a bit of a factor, but at
the end of the day these things happen. I took some time off after the US Open last year, and since then I didn’t feel like I’d reached the level I should have been at. Then the World Team Cup came along and I felt a change and played some amazing tennis.”

Hewett now plays Argentina’s Gustavo Fernandez in Friday’s semi-finals. He added: “It’s hard to just carry on, turn up here and think I’ll do the same – that’s not been the case. I had to progress, get back to training on the clay, which we haven’t played on for a year now. It’s like starting from scratch again, so that was really pleasing today.”

Reid, the men’s singles runner-up in Paris in 2016, gathered some welcome momentum to break Gerard’s serve and lead 4-3 in the second set of his quarter-final. He carried the momentum into the final set and could do little wrong as he opened a 3-0 cushion. The Rio Paralympic champion dropped just one point in the final two games, with Gerard serving up a double fault on match point.

The 27-year-old now plays defending champion Shingo Kuniedas of Japan. Former Australian Open and Wimbledon champion Reid said: “I feel quite drained. It was quite a tense match – I was nervous going in, and my timing was a bit off in the first set, while he was serving and returning well. I’m glad I found my way into it in the second set, scrapping a bit, and in the third set I played some good tennis. Shingo’s No.1 in the world right now, and he’s back to what I would say is his best form. He’s always a tough opponent to play against, but I know I can beat him – I’ve beaten him in the past, and I’ve
got the game to beat him. I’ll go away, prepare, and try and do that tomorrow.”

With Hewett and Reid in opposite halves of the draw, an all-Brit singles final remains a possibility. Meanwhile, Friday’s second day of play in Paris also sees Hewett and Reid bid to reach the men’s doubles final together.

The three-time Wimbledon and two-time US Open champions play their singles semi-final opponents Fernandez and Kunieda in their doubles semi-final. Hewett and Reid have played Fernandez and Reid in five Grand Slam doubles semi-finals since 2017 and have so far won each one.

Photo courtesy of the Tennis Foundation

SDS is pleased to be able to celebrate some great coaches during Coaching Week, 3-9 June.  Today SDS is delighted to highlight Josh Manson and share his thoughts on coaching:

Coaching Week, 3-9 June, is a springboard for inspiring the public to value coaches, energising coaches to learn and prompting policymakers to invest in coaching. #greatcoaching

SDS wishes to thank all its volunteers during Volunteers Week and to share some of their stories, and there are so many more we could have told, for example  all the volunteers who supported the Athletics Championships yesterday in the pouring rain! …..

Ling Mann is an amazing volunteer who runs her local boccia club in Dumfries and Galloway and over the last year has volunteered at a number of events. In July 2018,  she participated at the SDS Summer Camp. She then was the competition Manager for Bocce at the Special Olympics Anniversary Games in Stirling.  Ling then repacked her bags and went to Liverpool to be a voluntary lines person at the World Boccia Championships in August 2018.  In March 2019, she was the Head Coach for Bocce at the Special Olympics World Games in Dubai. Ling is also a level 2 Official and coach for Boccia and can be found at weekends supporting Boccia events. Next month she is off to the SDS Summer Camp!

With 18 Grand Slam titles between them, including three on the clay courts of Roland Garros, Alfie Hewett and Gordon Reid bid to add more major success when they contest the French Open wheelchair events from tomorrow (Thursday).

Hewett and Reid will be looking to build on their part in last month’s record World Team Cup performance by Great Britain players on the LTA’s Wheelchair Tennis World Class Performance Programme. Both players were unbeaten in singles competition in Israel as they led Great Britain to a second World Team cup men’s title, each defeating players that they could well be drawn against this week in Paris.

Roland Garros holds very special memories for Hewett, who won his first Grand Slam singles title in Paris in 2017, coming from a set and 2-0 down to beat Argentina’s Gustavo Fernandez. He added his second major singles title at the US Open last September, beating world No. 1 Shingo Kunieda of Japan in the final and recently gained his first win over Kunieda since their New York meeting.

World No. 5 Hewett and seven-time Grand Slam champion Hewett said: “You could see my reaction at the World Team Cup as to how much that meant to me to beat Shingo again and going into Roland Garros unbeaten in my last three matches against Joachim (Gerard), Shingo and Stephane (Houdet), three of the world’s current top four players and three players that I could potentially meet at Roland Garros is, of course, very pleasing. Roland Garros is obviously a different event and a different surface, but it’s the same for all of us.”

Fernandez and Kunieda have played a part in Reid’s past Roland Garros successes, too. The 2016 Australian Open and Wimbledon men’s singles champion and current world No. 8 played Fernandez in his first Roland Garros men’s singles final in 2016, the same year that he claimed his second men’s doubles title in Paris partnering Kunieda.

Reid, the Rio 2016 Paralympic men’s singles gold medallist and 11-time Grand Slam champion, said: “I’ve have had some really good results in patches this season but found it difficult to put together a string of results to collect any titles. Training’s been going really well, so it’s about moving that into matches at the bigger tournaments now. Clay’s a surface that I feel my game can be really effective on and I’ve got to the final in Paris before, as well as winning the two doubles titles with Shingo, so I can take plenty of confidence from that as well as from my World Team Cup performances.”

Hewett and Reid will not find out their first round singles or doubles opponents until this evening (Wednesday) in Paris, with singles matches getting underway on Thursday. And while both players will be looking to build on past singles successes they will also be aiming for their first Roland Garros doubles crown together, having won the last three Wimbledon and the last two US Open titles.

For daily updates throughout Roland Garros, head to lta.org.uk or keep up to date with all the action on Twitter @the_LTA

Photo courtesy of the Tennis Foundation

SDS is pleased to be able to celebrate some great people in Volunteers Week, 1-7 June and Coaching Week, 3-9 June.  Today SDS is delighted to highlight Stephen McGuire who won the BC4 gold medal at the Hong Kong World Boccia Open in May 2019. Stephen took time out of his busy schedule to share his story on coaching:

 

SDS is delighted to be able to celebrate some great people in Volunteers Week, 1-7 June and Coaching Week, 3-9 June.  Over this week SDS will be highlighting volunteers and coaches and voluntary coaches who contribute so much.  Today the the spotlight is on Robert Ailey:

The Czech International Boccia Open took place in Prague from the 31 May – 2 June 2019.  This event has become a regular opportunity for developing high performance players within the Scottish national boccia programme. 

On this occasion, Scottish Disability Sport selected Reegan Stevenson (BC1), Kieran Steer (BC4) and Ross Munro (BC4) to represent Scotland.  Lead coach, Jen Barsby ably led the players and their assistants over the weekend. Whilst the aim of the event is to gain success through podium finishes, the opportunity to gain vital experience at this level is paramount.  SDS strongly believes in providing international competition opportunities for emerging talent, as this supports their transition to British programmes in the future.

BC1/2 Team Competition 

Stevenson competed in the Team event and joined up with Claire Taggart (Boccia UK) and Will Hipwell (Boccia UK) to create a Scotland /GB team.  They started the competition well, defeating a combined Czech/Slovak team 7-3.  They followed this up with an 8-4 win against the Czechs to sail through the group to set up a semi-final against Slovakia.   

In an incredibly close encounter, Stevenson et al sneaked past Slovakia 7-5 to make it through to the final to guarantee a medal, where they will meet the combined Czech/Slovak team that they beat 7-3 in the morning session.  After leading 5-4 after four ends, Scotland/GB team lost a five in the fifth making it very difficult to win.  The match finished 10-4 but a good silver medal, nonetheless. 

BC4 Pairs Competition 

2016 Paralympian, Kieran Steer teamed up with Ross Munro for this competition.  In the group stage they saw off Germany 4-2, and followed this up with a comfortable 8-4 victory over the Czech Republic. This set up a semi-final with the first choice Czech pair. 

After an indifferent start and losing the first end 0-4, Scotland rallied and took three in the second end and a single in the third to tie it 4-4 going into the last.  Unfortunately, the Czechs showed the composure on home soil to end up winning 5-4, and the Scots had to settle for a bronze medal playoff against the same German pair they met in the group stages.  

The bronze medal match was a cagey affair with both nations claiming a point a piece in the first two ends.  Germany took the initiative in the third making the score 2-1 going into the last.  They followed this up with a two in the final end to take the bronze medal and take revenge for the group defeat earlier in the day.  The Scots finished in fourth place but a had a good competition. 

Individual Competition 

The rest of the weekend focussed on individual play and all three Scots were in action.  In the BC1 competition, Stevenson won one and lost one but secured his place in the quarter final.   

Steer won his first match comfortably and narrowly won his second 3-2, before cruising to an 11-1 against Czech Republic’s Koutny to top the group and secure a quarter final place.  Munro suffered a narrow 3-4 defeat at the hands of Scmid from the Czech Republic before going on to claim a 7-2 victory against Hubalovski (also Czech Republic).  Munro fought back from 0-2 after the first end to claim his first ever victory on international soil! His final match was against Klimko from Slovakia, and the experienced player beat Munro 0-9 to leave him third in the group and unable to progress.  This was a good competition for Ross, and we are confident he will take lots of learning from the experience. 

Stevenson was first up on finals day where he faced-off against Sandak (Czech).  The score was 2-2 going into the final end but Stevenson showed his experience by winning 3-2, in order to progress to the semi-final.  Another Czech player (Skopalova) stood in his way of a place in the final and whilst Stevenson played well, he was undone 7-1 and had to settle for a bronze medal match.  In this match he came up against another Czech player, Blazkova, whom he defeated in the group stages.  He approached the match with confidence but unfortunately, he lost out 1-3 to settle for a fourth place finish. 

In the BC4 competition, the experienced Steer came up against the experienced Marcin (Czech Republic) in the quarter final.  Steer started sluggishly and lost a four in the first end and ended up being defeated 1-6 to bow out of the competition.  Following his return to performance boccia (following a two year break) Kieran can take a lot of positives from the event, particularly, in his emphatic performances in the group stage. 

Scottish Disability Sport’s very own Jennifer Barsby coached the players throughout the competition and is heartened by the performances of the players over the weekend.  A silver medal for Reegan Stevenson in the Team event and several top performances is testament to that ideology and the experience of this level of tournament will stand the players in good stead going forward. 

Next up for Scotland’s top boccia players is the UK Championships which is taking place from the 14 – 16 June in Antrim, Northern Ireland. 

SDS is delighted to be able to celebrate some great people in Volunteers Week, 1-7 June and Coaching Week, 3-9 June.  Over this week SDS will be highlighting volunteers and coaches and voluntary coaches who contribute so much. We start by turning the spotlight on Gemma Lumsdaine who won sportscoltand’s Young Coach of the Year in November 2018 and then went forward to the  UK Coaching Awards final.

Let’s hear from Gemma: https://youtu.be/jtr02O6eEJk

Volunteers’ Week, 1-7 June, is a chance to say thank you for the fantastic contribution that millions of volunteers make across the UK. This year, the campaign tagline is ‘time to celebrate’. #VolunteersWeekScot

 Coaching Week, 3-9 June, is a springboard for inspiring the public to value coaches, energising coaches to learn and prompting policymakers to invest in coaching. #greatcoaching