Hewett and Reid achieve ultimate dream with Paralympic tennis title

The hug lasted for an entire minute. Alfie Hewett and Gordon Reid, after years of effort and no shortage of heartbreak, had earned the reward their partnership has been searching for and so truly deserved: gold ­medals at the Paralympic Games.

Reid and Hewett have won a ­staggering 21 grand slam titles since ­coming together as a pair from 2016, but they have always said that the Paralympic title was the one they saw as the pinnacle of their sport. It had eluded them, however, and defeat in the final in Tokyo three years ago had felt like the end of the road, with Hewett having been told he would be declassified from the sport.

That decision was subsequently overturned on appeal, the partnership was resumed and eight more slams have followed since. On Court Philippe-Chatrier, they took all that experience – good and bad – and put it to work, beating the ­Japanese pair of Takuya Miki and Tokito Oda handily, 6-2, 6-1 in one hour and 35 minutes of play. They become the first men’s pair to complete a “golden slam”.

After victory was secured and the two men had extracted themselves from their cuddle, the celebrations were wild. A crowd which had begun by rooting for the Japanese pair had been won round by the duo’s energy, and their ferocity, with fierce ­winners from backhand and forehand from the depths of the court cutting the Japanese in two.

There were more shaking fists and roaring cheers as the duo wheeled round the court in celebration, before finding their family and friends in a corner of the arena.

It was a contest between two pairs highly familiar with the other, Reid and Hewett and Miki and Oda have contested each of the three grand slam finals to be played in 2024. The fourth, the US Open, was cancelled due to the cross-scheduling with the Paralympics, but the prize money given to the finalists has been raised to match that which they would have earned had they been at Flushing Meadows.

In July the Brits edged out a tight encounter 6-4, 7-6 at Wimbledon, but the gap between the two pairs was much greater on Friday.

Reid and Hewett broke Miki’s serve in the very first game and did not look back from there. In fact it was service games that were the most difficult for both sides, with only four holds of serve in the entire first set.

At times there was too much power and too much determination to make a shot, with the ball coming off the frame on occasions. But in between the British duo showed a degree of control over the rallies, working their opponents, who stayed in the match due to dogged defence.

The key game of the contest was probably at 5-2 in the first, with Reid hoping to serve out the set. He had already had his serve broken once and found himself on the wrong end of two break points again. But Reid clawed the game back to deuce with a dash to the net and a perfect sliced volley cross court. After a period of two and fro at deuce, a big ­swinging serve from the 32-year-old Scot sealed the deal and immediately calmed the nerves.

From there the contest fell away. A big forehand winner down the right-hand side from Hewett saw Miki ­broken in his first service game again. Hewett then held his serve with ease to love. For all the cheers of “Nippon, Nippon” and Oda’s attempts to gin up more noise, the match was only going one way.

A break back at 3-0 only briefly paused the momentum. Britain broke again in the next game to love, a game decided by a double fault. With two games to glory the shots started to come out and the fist pumps too. Match point was claimed by Hewett with an inch-perfect drop shot. And from there the celebrations began. Who knows when they will stop.