WHEELCHAIR tennis star Gordon Reid is aiming for glory in Melbourne as he gears up for the first Grand Slam tournament of the year.
The Helensburgh hero has reached the final of the men’s doubles at the Melbourne Open – the second of two competitions acting as a warm-up for the Australian Open.
Reid, 32, and his long-time doubles partner Alfie Hewett won through to the semi-finals after seeing off Korea’s Ho Won Im and Guilhem Laget of France 6-3, 6-2 in the quarter-finals.
The British pair began the competition – their first doubles tournament of the year – with a 6-3, 6-1 first round win over Alexander Cataldo of Chile and American Casey Ratzlaff.
The tournament’s top seeds will take on the Japanese duo of Daisuke Arai and Takashi Sanada in the last four.
Reid’s singles campaign at the competition began with a 6-1, 6-0 win over Japan’s Yoshinubo Fujimoto, but Dutchman Mikael Scheffers proved too tough a nut to crack in the quarter-finals, winning 6-3, 6-1.
The Melbourne Open comes after the former Hermitage Academy pupil was eliminated in a close quarter-final tie against Sanada in the Victorian Open singles last week, with the Japanese player winning 7-5, 4-6, 6-3.
The Australian Open, at Melbourne Park, gets under way in a week’s time, on January 23, with the final due to be played on Saturday, January 27.
Reid and Hewett are aiming for their fifth successive Australian Open title and their 19th Grand Slam doubles crown.
They won the 2023 title with a 6–1, 6–2 win over Scheffers and his fellow Dutchman Ruben Spaargaren.
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