Gordon "Gio" Reid (born 2 October 1991) is a British professional

wheelchair tennis Wheelchair tennis is one of the forms of tennis adapted for wheelchair users. The size of the court, net height and rackets are the same, but there are two major differences from pedestrian tennis: athletes use specially designed wheelchairs, ...

player. He is ranked world No. 4 in singles and world No. 1 in doubles. He is a

Paralympic The Paralympic Games or Paralympics, also known as the ''Games of the Paralympiad'', is a periodic series of international multisport events involving athletes with a range of physical disabilities, including impaired muscle power and impaire ...

gold, silver, and bronze medalist, two-time

Grand Slam Grand Slam most often refers to: * Grand Slam (tennis), one player or pair winning all four major annual tournaments, or the tournaments themselves Grand Slam or Grand slam may also refer to: Games and sports * Grand slam, winning category te ...

singles champion, and nineteen-time Grand Slam doubles champion. He has competed for Great Britain at the Summer Paralympics when tennis made its first appearance at

Beijing 2008 The 2008 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXIX Olympiad () and also known as Beijing 2008 (), were an international multisport event held from 8 to 24 August 2008, in Beijing, China. A total of 10,942 athletes from 204 Nat ...

. He reached the quarterfinals in the singles in London 2012 as well as the quarterfinals in doubles. He won Paralympic gold in the men's singles event at

Rio 2016 ) , nations = 207 (including IOA and EOR teams) , athletes = 11,238 , events = 306 in 28 sports (41 disciplines) , opening = 5 August 2016 , closing = 21 August 2016 , opened_by = Vice President Michel Temer , cauldron = Vanderlei Cordeiro de ...

and silver in the doubles event with partner

Alfie Hewett Alfie Hewett (born 6 December 1997) is a British wheelchair tennis player. He is the current world No. 1 in doubles, and a former world No. 1 in singles. Hewett is a 21-time major Major ( commandant in certain jurisdictions) is a mili ...

, whom he beat in the singles final. At

Tokyo 2020 The , officially the and also known as , was an international multi-sport event held from 23 July to 8 August 2021 in Tokyo, Japan, with some preliminary events that began on 21 July. Tokyo was selected as the host city during the ...

, Reid won bronze in the singles and silver in the doubles with Hewett. The pair later went on to complete a calendar year

, winning all four majors in 2021. They are currently on a 10 consecutive Grand Slam win streak, having not lost in a Grand Slam since Wimbledon in 2019.

Early life

Reid was born in

Alexandria, West Dunbartonshire Alexandria ( sco, The Vale,
gd, Alexandria) is a town in

, on 2 October 1991. He comes from a tennis-playing family and started playing tennis at the age of six, alongside his two brothers and sister at Helensburgh Lawn Tennis Club, where he was a good junior player, before contracting rare spinal condition,

transverse myelitis Transverse myelitis (TM) is a rare neurological condition wherein the spinal cord is Inflammation, inflamed. The adjective ''wikt:transverse#Adjective, transverse'' implies that the spinal inflammation (myelitis) extends horizontally throughout ...

in 2004. He was paralysed from the waist down for over a decade but then gradually regained limited ability to stand and walk unaided. He first began playing wheelchair tennis in 2005, when he was introduced to the sport at Scotstoun Leisure Centre in Glasgow. He was acknowledged for his sporting credentials in 2006, when he was among the 10 shortlisted finalists for the BBC Young Sports Personality of the Year. In 2007, Reid became Britain's youngest men's Singles National Champion and he was also part of Great Britain's winning junior team at the 2007 World Team Cup. He feels his greatest achievement was representing ParalympicsGB at the 2008 Beijing Paralympic Games when he was 16 years old. When he was younger, Reid combined his training commitments with his studies and in 2009 he passed Highers in Maths, English and Biology after attending Hermitage Academy. He is a lifelong supporter of Rangers FC and regularly attends their home matches.

Tennis career

Reid won his first wheelchair tennis title in April 2005, six weeks after coming out of hospital, when he won the B Division Singles at the Glasgow Wheelchair Tennis Tournament. He became Britain's youngest National champion at the age of 15 in 2007 and the youngest British men's No 1 shortly before his 18th birthday at the end of September 2008. At the 2006 British Open he won both the Men's Second Draw Singles and Boys' Junior Singles and ended the year among the 10 shortlisted finalists for the 2006 BBC Young Sports Person of the Year. In 2007 he won the boys' doubles at the Junior Masters in Tarbes, France and shortly afterwards won the men's singles at the 2007 North West Challenge in Preston to collect his first senior international NEC Wheelchair Tennis Tour singles title. He was undefeated as a member of the winning GB Junior team in the Junior event at the 2007 Invacare World Team Cup (Davis and Fed Cups of wheelchair tennis) In 2008 and 2009 he won both the boys' singles and boys' doubles at the Junior Masters in Tarbes, France and in January 2009 became world No 1 junior in the boys' singles rankings, a position he maintained throughout his final season as a junior. He helped Great Britain to win men's World Group 2 at the 2008 Invacare World Team Cup, to finish fifth in World Group 1 in 2009 and to finish fourth in Turkey in 2010, which was Britain's best Invacare World Team Cup result in the men's event since 2002. Reid was named Tennis Scotland Junior Male Player of the Year in 2009 and Tennis Scotland Disabled Player of the Year in 2010. As a doubles player, he qualified for the year-end Doubles Masters for the first time in 2009, where he and his Hungarian partner Laszlo Farkas finished fifth of the eight partnerships. Reid also played in the men's wheelchair doubles at Wimbledon in 2008. Reid ended 2010 having beaten three world top ranked players on his way to winning three NEC Tour singles titles during the season, as well as winning four doubles titles during the year. He beat Austrian world No 9 Martin Legner to win his last tournament of the season in December, the Prague Cup Czech Indoor. In January 2016 Reid won his first ever Grand Slam singles wheelchair title at the

Australian Open The Australian Open is a tennis tournament held annually at Melbourne Park in Melbourne, Australia. The tournament is the first of the four Grand Slam tennis events held each year, preceding the French Open, Wimbledon, and the US Open. Th ...

. In July 2016, Reid followed up with his second Grand Slam victory in the inaugural singles wheelchair championships at Wimbledon. At the

2016 Summer Paralympics ) , nations = 159 , athletes = 4,342 , opening = 7 September , closing = 18 September , opened_by = President Michel Temer , cauldron = Clodoaldo Silva , events = 528 in 22 sports , stadium = Maracanã , sum ...

Reid won the gold medal for the Men's Wheel chair Singles tennis, beating fellow Briton

in straight sets, 6–2, 6–1. Reid was appointed

Member of the Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established o ...

(MBE) in the

2017 New Year Honours The 2017 New Year Honours are appointments by some of the 16 Commonwealth realms to various orders and honours to recognise and reward good works by citizens of those countries. The New Year Honours were awarded as part of the New Year celebrati ...

for services to wheelchair tennis. After giving him his MBE, Queen

Elizabeth II Elizabeth II (Elizabeth Alexandra Mary; 21 April 1926 – 8 September 2022) was Queen of the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth realms from 6 February 1952 until her death in 2022. She was queen regnant of 32 sovereign states during ...

referred to him as a "charming young man". He competed in

wheelchair tennis at the 2020 Summer Paralympics Wheelchair tennis at the 2020 Summer Paralympics in Tokyo, Japan took place at the Ariake Tennis Park from 27 August to 4 September 2021. The 2020 Summer Olympic and Paralympic Games were postponed to 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. They k ...

, where he won silver in the doubles with partner

and bronze in the singles. After 2016, Reid's grand slam success continued primarily with his accolades in the doubles alongside partner

. Together, they were the first men's wheelchair tennis pair to win the calendar year

grand slam Grand Slam most often refers to: * Grand Slam (tennis), one player or pair winning all four major annual tournaments, or the tournaments themselves Grand Slam or Grand slam may also refer to: Games and sports * Grand slam, winning category te ...

, which they completed in 2021. Their title at the

in 2022 marked their 9th consecutive victory in a slam, overtaking

Martina Navratilova Martina Navratilova ( cs, Martina Navrátilová ; ; born October 18, 1956) is a Czech–American, former professional tennis player. Widely considered among the greatest tennis players of all time, Navratilova won 18 major singles titles, 31 maj ...

and

Pam Shriver Pamela Howard Shriver (born July 4, 1962) is an American former professional tennis player and current tennis broadcaster and pundit. During the 1980s and 1990s, Shriver won 133 titles, including 21 singles titles, 111 women's doubles titles, an ...

's record for most consecutive slam titles. Their slam win streak is currently ongoing, having not lost in a slam since Wimbledon 2019.

Career statistics

Grand Slam performance timelines

Wheelchair singles

Wheelchair doubles

Finals

Wheelchair singles: 6 (2 titles, 4 runner-ups)

Wheelchair doubles: 27 (18 titles, 9 runner-ups)

References

External links

* * * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Reid, Gordon 1991 births Living people Australian Open (tennis) champions Wimbledon champions US Open (tennis) champions Scottish male tennis players Scottish disabled sportspeople Scottish Paralympic competitors British male tennis players British wheelchair tennis players Paralympic wheelchair tennis players of Great Britain Paralympic medalists in wheelchair tennis Paralympic gold medalists for Great Britain Paralympic silver medalists for Great Britain Wheelchair tennis players at the 2008 Summer Paralympics Wheelchair tennis players at the 2012 Summer Paralympics Wheelchair tennis players at the 2016 Summer Paralympics Wheelchair tennis players at the 2020 Summer Paralympics Medalists at the 2016 Summer Paralympics Members of the Order of the British Empire Sportspeople from West Dunbartonshire People educated at Hermitage Academy ITF World Champions