Australian Open 2016: Champion Gordon Reid sets sights on Rio and Wimbledon
Reid has got to know Andy and Jamie Murray, forming with them a trio of Scots playing finals in Melbourne over the weekend
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Gordon Reid had never even heard of wheelchair tennis until he was 13. Eleven years since turning to the sport after being diagnosed with a neurological disease which left him paralysed from the waist down, the 24-year-old Scot became Britain’s first wheelchair Grand Slam singles champion when he won the Australian Open on Saturday, beating Belgium’s Joachim Gérard 7-6, 6-4 in the final.
“Before I started playing wheelchair tennis, I didn’t realise it existed and then when I just started playing I didn’t realise it existed in the Grand Slams,” Reid said yesterday as he reflected on his victory.
“Then as my career moved on and I started improving and playing more on the tour, I thought: ‘Wait a minute. I’ve got an opportunity to play at Grand Slams with all my idols from tennis. Maybe I could win one of them one day if I work hard enough’.”
Reid, who had played tennis in his home town of Helensburgh as a boy, took up the wheelchair version after contracting transverse myelitis and losing the use of his legs. “I just wanted to play to get back into sport, to get active and healthy again,” he said. “I never even dreamed of this.”
The Scot said he had plenty more goals this year. The Paralympics will be held in Rio in September and before that Wimbledon will be staging wheelchair singles for the first time.
“It’s going to be huge for our sport and it will be amazing to play in front of home crowds,” Reid said. “The Wimbledon title is one that would be quite nice to have.”
Reid has got to know Andy and Jamie Murray, forming with them a trio of Scots playing finals in Melbourne over the weekend. “It’s great to have their support,” Reid said. “Andy and Jamie were in the locker room and I got congratulations from them.”
Reid had a chance to win a second title but the Scot and his partner, Shingo Kunieda, lost 6-3, 3-6, 7-5 in the doubles final to France’s Stéphane Houdet and Nicolas Peifer.
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