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 wheelchair tennis pair from 2016, but they have always said that the Paralympic title was the one they believed to be 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 subsequently 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. In doing so, they became the first men’s pair to complete a “golden slam”.
“It’s something we’ve been desperate for for a long time now”, said Reid. “And we’ve come so close twice [with defeat in finals at Rio and Tokyo] and felt that heartbreak, felt that pain. It’s been some of the toughest moments in my career. So to sit here with the gold around our necks, I think it’s up there with one of the best.
“Sometimes you have to feel that pain to really enjoy the highs when they come. And it’s important for us not to let this moment pass us by, to really savour it. I think it’s safe to say we did that out in the court and in the ceremony. And yeah, I’m sure we’ll be doing it later tonight as well.” Asked what was said between them in their cuddle, Reid said: “A lot of expletives.”
Hewett is the dominant men’s wheelchair tennis player of his generation, with nine grand slam singles titles to his name including his first Wimbledon title this summer. But as well as losing as a pair, Reid beat him in the singles final in Rio, meaning this was his first time on the top of a Paralympic podium. It seems a long way away from the lows of Tokyo when a classification panel had adjudicated the Perthes disease which affects his movement was insufficiently limiting to allow him to compete in a wheelchair.
“We definitely grew a lot in those years”, Hewett said. “And I think we’re able to manage the moments a lot better. But still, there’s always that little doubt in the back of your mind that reminds you of those two losses in Paralympics. Is this going to be a thing that sticks with you for another Games, or can you break the cycle? I think that’s normal and natural.”
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, at 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 Meadow. 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 .
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.
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 court. Hewett will have to limit further celebrations for now though, he goes again in the singles final against Oda on Saturday.
