The four-time Paralympic medallist won twice today to begin his quest for more success in impressive fashion
By Paul Morrison
Day 4 of the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games saw Scotland star Gordon Reid take to the courts at Roland Garros to begin his events in wheelchair tennis. On a busy Sunday on the clay, the ParalympicsGB athlete was in action twice as he started both his singles and doubles tournaments.
Up first for Gordon was a match in the singles against Sri Lanka’s Suresh Dharmasena. With this Paralympic match-up being the first time the two players would face off, it could have been a tricky contest for Gordon after Dharmasena enjoyed a comfortable straight-set win in the opening round against Austria’s Josef Riegler.
Gordon was locked in from the first point as he was straight off the block with breaking the Sri Lankan’s serve in the opening game and despite facing a break point on his first service game, Gordon held to take an early lead.
A second and third break came quicky after as Gordon quickly wrapped up the first set 6-0, with Dharmasena’s many unforced errors and double faults proving costly.
The same story followed for the second set when Gordon once again cruised through each service and return game as his opponent’s error count only increased. The Scot would go on to claim victory with another set to love as the match finished 6-0, 6-0 in 50 minutes.
Gordon was pleased with his performance and of the conditions at Roland Garros, saying: “For the first match, to get used to the conditions, courts, match play, I’m happy with the start.”
He added: “I love the heat and a bit of humidity, get a sweat on. It’s nice conditions so hopefully it stays like this for the rest of the week. It’s going to get harder from here but I’m looking forward to the challenge.”
In the afternoon, Gordon turned to doubles action with teammate Alfie Hewitt as the top seeds looked to start their campaign strong in the hope of achieving gold together for the first time.
They were up against the Chilean pair of Alexander Cataldo and Brayan Tapia which proved to be a much more difficult match for Gordon. Serving first, the Scot experienced a shaky start as his serve was broken, handing the Chileans the lead.
It wouldn’t take long before the Brits settled into the match as while it wasn’t all comfortable for them and were forced to save some more break points, Gordon and Alfie won six consecutive games to take the first set 6-1.
After breaking serve again to lead 2-1 in the second set, Gordon was unable to hold his serve for a second time. The advantage was immediately restored afterwards when the Brits broke to love to lead 3-2 after a third straight break of serve in the set.
A long and gruelling game tested Alfie’s serving skills as they took the game after several cagey moments at deuce.
A collection of unforced errors saw the Chileans throw away a service game to hand Gordon the chance to serve for the match. For a third time though, the Scot was broken to hand Cataldo and Tapia a lifeline.
The British pair followed this up by showing how well they can bounce back from a hiccup, firing home three forehand winners to seal the win at 6-1, 6-3.
Along with the strong performance, Gordon was delighted with the atmosphere that was seen throughout the day of action at Roland Garros.
“It’s amazing to see the whole place and every stadium and every court so busy and to know that everybody is here purely for wheelchair tennis is an incredible feeling and incredible for us to be part of it,” he said.
“Hopefully we’ve entertained a few people and we’ll have the chance to do that again as the week goes on.”
The pair will now face the Netherlands’ Ruben Spaargaren and Maarten Ter Hofte (7) on Tuesday (3rd September) in the quarter finals.
On Monday (2nd), he will be back on court to face Japan’s Takuyo Mika in the third round of the singles after the 9th seed defeated the People’s republic of China’s, Jinhui Ding, earlier today.
The Paris 2024 Paralympics runs from the 28th August – 8th September. You can follow all the action and find out how the 21 Scottish Para athletes get on by following Scottish Disability Sport on Facebook, X and Instagram, as well as on the SDS website. You can catch all the action on Channel 4. More information here.