GORDON Reid returned from Johannesburg as men’s doubles runner-up for the third time in four years at the South African Open.

In the the second wheelchair tennis Super Series event of the year, Helensburgh’s Reid and fellow Brit Alfie Hewett, last year’s British Open Super Series champions, eased through their first three matches for the loss of a total of just 10 games.

They put in dominant performance to defeat third seeds Joachim Gerard of Belgium and Maikel Scheffers of the Netherlands 6-2, 6-1 in their semi-final.

However, having taken top seeds Stephane Houdet and Nicolas Peifer to a final set tie-break at the Sydney International Open Super Series final in January, Hewett and Reid narrowly missed out on forcing a deciding set this time as the French duo prevailed 6-4, 6-4.

Reid was keen to look for the positives despite the disappointment. He said: “In the end it just came down to a few points, just as there were just a few points between us in Sydney. But it’s our third Super Series final in a row and there are a lot of positives to take from that.

“We tried a few different tactics against them this time and as we continue to work towards Rio there’s plenty we can take away to work on for next time.”

A third men’s singles final in four years in Johannesburg proved elusive for Reid after he bowed out 6-4, 6-3 in the last eight to Swedish fifth seed Stefan Olsson, having begun his campaign with comfortable straight sets wins over South Africa’s Marshall Marsh and Brazil’s Daniel Rodrigues.

Reid added: “Stefan was in really good form last week and he very nearly beat the world number one to get to the final.

“I struggled with the conditions a bit. It was pretty windy and we were playing at altitude there, so on this occasion Stefan was the better player on the day.

“But I’ll go back to training and look forward to coming out stronger again and picking up more ranking points in the coming tournaments.”