FIRST TOUR TITLE OF 2012 FOR REID

Published 20 Jan 2012 08:30

HELENSBURGH tennis ace Gordon Reid gained his first title on the 2012 NEC Wheelchair Tennis Tour on Wednesday when the British number one teamed up with fellow Brit Marc McCarroll to win the men's doubles at the Melbourne Open.

Reid also beat his first world top 10 opponent of the new season enroute to reaching the men's singles semi-final.

Reid and McCarroll, who had gone into the tournament without a seeding, won two close matches on his way to the final.

They edged fellow Brits Alex Jewitt and David Phillipson 7-5, 7-5 in the quarter-finals before recovering from a slow start to defeat French duo Frederic Cattaneo and Frederic Cazeaudumec 2-6, 6-1, (10-4) in the semi-finals after a deciding champions tie-break.

Reid and McCarroll were due to meet Dutch top seeds Tom Egberink and Ronald Vink in yesterday's final, but Vink had to withdraw after injuring his wrist in the men's singles final.

He said: "It's nice to get a title under our belts and to get the ranking points in the bag, although it would have been nice to play the doubles final.

"However, we've started the year well and hope we can continue some good form for the rest of the season."

The Melbourne final was Reid and McCarroll's second doubles final of the year after they also reached the title decider at the Queensland Open in Brisbane in the first week of January.

In Brisbane, Reid and McCarroll were edged out in the final by top seeds Cazeaudumec and Michael Jeremiasz, having beaten second seeds Egberink and Martin Legner of Austria in their opening match.

The British duo were also semi-finalists in last week's Adelaide Open before bowing out to second seeds Legner and Satoshi Saida of Japan after a deciding champions tie break.

Reid began his year in singles competition with a three set loss to fellow Brit David Phillipson in Brisbane two weeks ago, but took former world number one Jeremiasz to three sets in the semi-finals last week in Adelaide before Jeremiasz went on to win the title.

Current world number 12 Reid stepped up his singles campaign this week in Melbourne, beating French world number nine Frederic Cattaneo 6-1, 7-6 (5) in the quarter-finals before bowing out to world number four Vink 7-5, 0-6, 6-0 in the semi-finals.

Vink was edged out in Wednesday's final by Jeremiasz in a final set tie-break.

Reid added: "Obviously it's good to get a win over a top 10 opponent so early in the season, especially after going out in the first round in Queensland two weeks ago.

"I've also played two other three set matches against top opponents, so it's a good foundation to build on going into Sydney and building towards the end of the qualification window for the London Paralympic Games in May."

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This article appeared in Helensburgh Advertiser 19 Jan 12

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