GORDON REID is through to the last four of the men’s wheelchair singles at the US Open – but his dreams winning a calendar Grand Slam for the second time in the Helensburgh hero’s stellar doubles career are over.

Reid, 31, is now just one match away from chalking up his best-ever singles performance at Flushing Meadows after coming from a set and 4-0 down to beat Spain’s Martin de la Puente in the last eight on Thursday.

But in hot and humid conditions in New York, the former Hermitage Academy pupil and his doubles partner Alfie Hewett found two marathon matches in a single day too big a hurdle to overcome as the doubles top seeds fell to a surprise 5-7, 6-7 (8-10) defeat against Stephane Houdet and Takashi Sanada - ending a day in which Reid spent more than five hours on court.

A decade since he took part in his first Grand Slam tournament, Reid has yet to play in a US Open singles final – but he’s now on the verge of doing just that.

And having been bested by Frenchman Houdet in the doubles, Reid will be out for revenge when the unseeded rivals clash in the singles last four on Court 11 on Friday for the right to take on either Hewett or Argentina’s Gustavo Fernandez in the final.

The prospect of the Helensburgh man winning a place in the last four appeared remote at the end of Reid’s first set against de la Puente on Thursday, which the Spaniard, the singles tournament’s fourth seed, won 6-1 against the unseeded Scot - and looked even more remote when de la Puente topened up a 4-0 lead in the second set to move to within two games of victory.

But Reid, a three-time US Open semi-finalist, dug deep and levelled the match, winning the next four and going on to take the set 7-5. 

And though de la Puente mounted something of a comeback of his own in the decider, fighting back from 4-2 down to level at 5-5, Reid had the momentum and closed out the match to love to set up Friday’s last four tie.

Reid said: “I started poorly and was putting myself under a lot of pressure, but I managed to hang in and scrap my way back and played some really good tennis. I never give up and I could see from the 4-0 game (in the second set), when I managed to pull I back from 40-15, that he was getting a little bit anxious, so I just tried to stay patient and stay calm.”

Elsewhere on Thursday, fellow Brit Hewett booked his place in the semi-finals by beating Takuya Miki of Japan 6-1, 6-3, while Houdet defeated the host nation’s Casey Ratzlaff 6-3, 6-3.

But Reid’s singles quarter-final lasted for two hours and 35 minutes – and that, coupled with Hewett’s 88 minutes on court against Miki, must have played a part as the Brits were beaten in straight sets in their doubles semi-final on the Louis Armstrong Stadium court after another marathon tie.

The British duo – out to regain the title they last won in 2021, having lost last year’s final to de la Puente and France’s Nicolas Peifer – opened up a 3-0 lead in the first set, but were unable to sustain that momentum as Houdet and his Japanese partner took the next five.

Reid and Hewett, winners already this year at the Australian Open, the French Open and Wimbledon. hit back to level at 5-5, but their opponents – perhaps slightly fresher, with Tanada not having been involved in a singles match earlier in the day – held serve to regain the advantage before breaking the Brits to win the set 7-5.

The British pair were never behind in the second set until the tie-break – in fact, on three occasions they led by a two-game margin – but their opponents would not be denied, and in a nail-biting conclusion it was Houdet and Tanada who prevailed, just, after two hours and 39 minutes to set up a final against the Japanese pair of Takuya Miki and Tokito Oda.

Friday's second singles semi-final will see Hewett face Fernandez after the Argentinian player defeated Ruben Spaargaren of the Netherlands 4-6, 6-2, 6-1 in the last eight.