Britain’s Gordon Reid reached his second Grand Slam men’s singles semi-final of the year on Thursday when defeating world No. 4 Joachim Gerard of Belgium in his opening at the US Open Wheelchair Tennis Competition in New York.
World No. 6 Reid took a commanding 5-1 first set lead over Gerard as the Scot made his debut in New York and although Gerard saved three set points en route to pulling one game back, Reid eventually clinched the set on his fifth set point.
After Gerard won the last three games of the second set, there was never more than one game separating the two players for the first nine games of the final set, but Reid eventually earned the breakthrough he needed to wrap up a 6-2, 4-6, 6-4 victory.
“It was a tight match and I don’t think either of us played our best tennis, but I’m delighted to win my first ever match at the US Open,” said Reid, one of four Brits on the Tennis Foundation's Wheelchair Tennis Performance Programme currently contesting the final Grand Slam of the year. “That’s two semi-finals now in my first two men’s singles events at Grand Slams and I’m really looking forward to giving it my all in the last four.”
British No. 1 Reid, who reached the men’s singles semi-finals at Roland Garros in June when making his Grand Slam tournament debut, will now play world No. 2 Stephane Houdet on Friday for a place in the final in New York.
Andy Lapthorne maintains hopes of reaching his second Grand Slam final of 2013 in the quad singles, despite losing his opening match in New York to American world No. 1 David Wagner. World No. 2 Lapthorne, who took Wagner to three sets twice en route to finishing runner-up at the Australian Open in January, slipped to a 6-3, 6-1 loss to Wagner in the first of his three round-robin singles matches and will now take on American world No. 4 Nick Taylor on Friday.
Jordanne Whiley came back from 5-1 down to 5-4 in the second set of her women’s singles quarter-final against German world No. 1 Sabine Ellerbrock, but Ellerbrock held on for a 6-2, 6-4 win, while Lucy Shuker put up a determined effort against Dutch world No. 5 Marjolein Buis before Buis eventually moved in to the semi-finals 7-5, 6-4.
Friday’s second day of play in the US Open Wheelchair Tennis Competition will see the start of the men’s and women’s doubles. Reid will partner Dutchman Ronald Vink as they bid to reach their second Grand Slam men’s doubles final of the season. The Roland Garros runners-up and second seeds will play Argentina’s Gustavo Fernandez and Gerard.
Shuker and Buis, the runners-up at the Australian Open in January, will face second seeds Ellerbrock and Yui Kamiji of Japan in the women’s doubles semi-finals, with Whiley partnering South Africa’s Kgothatso Montjane in the other women doubles semi-final against Dutch second seeds Jiske Griffioen and Aniek van Koot.
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