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Helensburgh’s Gordon Reid is one of eight wheelchair tennis players heading for this month’s Paralympics in Beijing.
The 16 year old only began playing wheelchair tennis in 2005 but has made tremendous progress through the ranks. Aged 15 he became Britain’s youngest men’s singles national champion. He is currently at a career high world singles ranking of No.36 and ranked the world’s No.2 junior, helped by winning three international singles and four international doubles titles this year.
Gordon, who along with Linlithgow’s Kevin Simpson, will be the first Scot to compete in a British Paralympics tennis team, said: “It means a huge amount to me that all my hard work over the past year has finally paid off and I've gained qualification.”
Until last year, Reid’s main focus had been on the London Olympics but increasingly good results helped him see his qualification for Beijing as a possibility. “Over time it’s been more and more realistic,” he said.
“I'm really looking forward to getting an idea of what a Paralympic Games will be like ahead of London 2012. My aims in China are to play good tennis, enjoy myself and challenge anybody that I come up against.”
Coached by Karen Ross, Tennis Scotland’s High Performance Coach, Gordon has been supported by the West of Scotland Institute of Sport since last autumn.
“I’ve been to see the physio at the West of Scotland Institute and have been for a couple of Strength & Conditioning blocks. They were good and I’ll make more use of that now I’m at home more.
“One of the big differences between me and the top players is fitness so I will definitely work on that and that will help me get my level up.”
