Paralympic Games: Gordon Reid disappointed as he makes double exit

By PAUL EDDISON
Published on 06/09/2012 03:56

BRITISH No 1 Gordon Reid 
suffered the twin disappointment of exiting London 2012 in both the doubles and singles events in one day.

After going down 6-3, 6-3 to Dutch No 3 seed Maikel Scheffers in a tight singles match in the morning, Reid and doubles partner Marc McCarroll were beaten in straight sets of their quarter-final tie. It was another tight match, with the French pair of Nicolas Peifer and Frederic Cattaneo edging to a 7-6, 6-4 victory.

Reflecting on his singles exit, the 20-year-old from Helensburgh said: “My serve was pretty poor with not many first serves in and a few double faults at key times.

“It was a tight match in the singles, similar to the last round, and there were only a few points in it, but unlike in that match I didn’t play the big points well.

“I gave away a lot of cheap points and made a lot of errors on big points and you can’t 
afford to do that at this stage of the tournaments.”

Reid refused to blame tight scheduling for losing out in both events on the same day.

He said: “It’s a normal set-up for us to have two games in a day like this. In fact, we’ve probably had more rest than we normally would. The draw is a little bit bigger, but apart from that it’s similar to normal tournaments.”

Meanwhile, Peter Norfolk and Andy Lapthorne lost out in their bid for wheelchair tennis quad doubles gold as American duo David Wagner and Nick Taylor beat them 6-2, 5-7, 6-2.

The American pair won the opening set comfortably and although Norfolk and Lapthorne rallied to claim the second, the defending champions proved too strong in the decider.

It meant Norfolk, known as the Quadfather, had to settle for a silver medal as compensation for his failure to defend his quad singles title.