Scotland’s wheelchair tennis hero completes a coveted golden career slam in Paris with Alfie Hewett
By Paul Morrison
The unbridled joy was hard to hide for ParalympicsGB’s Gordon Reid and Alfie Hewett as the pair fulfilled a career-long dream of winning the Paralympic title in the men’s wheelchair tennis doubles event on Friday (6th), day nine of the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games.
Gordon and Alfie defeated the Japanese duo of Tokito Oda and Takuya Miki to achieve doubles gold at the third time of asking.
As well as Paralympics champions, the Brits’ win also completes their remarkable career golden slam to establish their status as one of the greatest doubles partnerships of all time.
The win gives Gordon his second Paralympic gold medal, adding to his singles title in Rio eight years ago, while Alfie added a silver medal in the singles as he was defeated by Oda in Saturday’s final.
Undoubtedly the top match in wheelchair tennis doubles at the moment, Gordon and Alfie would have been confident in their chances as they defeated Oda and Miki in all three major finals this year.
Once again, the Brits took no time to get going as they broke the Japanese pair to open the match, thanks to some astonishing winners at the net from Gordon, something that would become one of the match’s key points.
As Oda and Miki then got themselves on the board after breaking Gordon’s serve, the Brits would hold their own in many highly competitive points to manage to give them the chance of securing the first set and completing the first step to winning gold.
Taking the first set 6-2, Gordon and Alfie would only get stronger as they tallied off the first three games of the second set as the Japanese pair struggled to find any answer to get the upper hand.
While Oda and Miki weren’t completely out of the match after breaking Alfie’s serve, the instant response was there for the Brits who broke straight back. Gordon then held his service game to make it 5-1, finding themselves one game away from the gold medal.
A strong return game was produced from the Brits and an excellent drop shot from Alfie gave them the gold as the Roland Garros crowd at Phillippe-Chatrier witnessed a historic moment as the pair couldn’t stop the emotions getting the better of them.
Gordon and Alfie’s win also saw the ParalympicsGB team surpass the 40 mark for gold medals won at the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games.
Shortly after the win, Gordon and Alfie would find themselves atop the podium as the medal ceremony began, with the British and Japanese pairs being joined by Spain’s Martin De La Puente and Daniel Caverzaschi, who won the bronze medal match on Suzanne-Lenglen.
The prizing moment of receiving their gold medals and hearing the British national anthem saw the duo sport some wide and joyous smiles that spoke a thousand words of how they felt in this moment.
Speaking after the match, Gordon tried to make some sense of the incredible moment, saying: “We finally did it, it’s ours. It feels amazing, even if it’s not fully sunk in yet, the emotions and adrenaline are still high.”
Knowing that the win has banished the devastation of losing out in the gold medal matches from Tokyo (2020) and Rio (2026), he added: “We’ve been desperate for this for a long time, we’ve come close twice and felt that heartbreak and pain.”
“Those matches have been some of the toughest moments of my career so to sit here with the gold around our necks is one of the best feelings.”
Beginning to come to terms with the title they just achieved, he finally said: “Sometimes you need to feel some pain to enjoy the highs when they come, we need to really savour this moment.”
For Alfie, he could only add a silver medal in the singles to his doubles gold with Gordon when he was pipped to the title by an inspired Oda 2-6, 6-4, 5-7 in a dramatic final to round off the brilliant wheelchair tennis events in Paris.
The pair will take this victory into the last major tournament of the year as they look to add the Wheelchair Doubles Masters to their winnings this year in November.
Well done Gordon and Alfie!