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WIMBLEDON

July 9, 2016

Gordon Reid

London, England

HEWETT‑REID/Houdet‑Peifer
4‑6, 6‑1, 7‑6

THE MODERATOR: Gordon and Alfie, our new Wimbledon wheelchair champions. First question, please.

Q. You seemed, on the interview on the television, to be more pleased for Archie than you did for yourself.
GORDON REID: His name is Alfie, so I was pleased for Alfie (laughter).
I'm really pleased for Alfie. I knew what it was like, the feeling of winning your first Grand Slam. It just happened to me last year. So I know how much it will mean to him.
To be able to do it here on home turf in Wimbledon, I mean, it's going to be something I'll never forget. I'm sure it's going to be the same for Alfie.

Q. (Question about being in the final tomorrow as well as Andy.)
GORDON REID: Bit of a fairytale story so far. Hopefully I can finish it off the right way tomorrow.
He is 'the man' at the moment. He's playing well. He's doing a good job so far, into the final tomorrow. Hopefully we can get two wins under our belt.

Q. It was quite a topsy‑turvy match. How did it feel to be part of it? Did you worry at the end of the third set?
ALFIE HEWETT: Me personally, in the end of the third set, I was thinking we had lost it, especially because of last year, being in the epic match, which I was against Gordon, where I was 5‑2 up in the third set. We had a match point again. We ended up losing that 7‑6.
There were times. I think I even said at one of the change of ends, Don't let this be a repeat of last year. Gordon held his serve at 6‑5, took it to a tiebreak.
When it got to the tiebreak, I was more relaxed, more confident we could do it.
But definitely, it's always hard to switch that momentum in tennis. When you've gone 5‑2 up, the momentum was with us, we really should have took that.
But for them to come back and get four games quite quickly, as well... Houdet was certainly playing some really good tennis. Always tough to break. Once we did break, I knew we had an even chance of winning that tiebreak.

Q. How is the scheduling going to work tomorrow? Will you be up early? Up against Andy?
GORDON REID: Good question. I think I'm going to be first on at 11:00. Hopefully it should be a similar thing to today. We'll get the match covered before Andy goes on. So it's a good warmup for the main event later on.

Q. Phenomenal achievement if two Scottish guys win in both singles at Wimbledon.
GORDON REID: Yeah, not bad for a small little country like ours. Yeah, I mean, obviously I was on the Centre Court when Andy won in 2013, which was absolutely an amazing achievement for him. For me, having the opportunity to win the first‑ever time they've had a wheelchair singles event, is a massive, massive opportunity for me.
Yeah, just happy that I've managed to put myself in the position to have a chance at winning it. Hopefully I'll go all the way tomorrow.

Q. Do you speak to him often? Does he text you back and forth? How much of an inspiration has he been to you?
GORDON REID: He's inspired me since I was young. I watched him as a player on TV since I was a young guy. Yeah, he's inspired me like he's inspired a lot of players in Scotland and the UK.
We don't speak that much. I mean, he's a busy guy. Our schedules don't cross over that often. But I know a lot of his team quite well now. Whenever we bump into each other, we'll have a chat.
But it tends to be at the Grand Slams mostly. We're both there with a job to do. A lot of the times we're kind of in our own little bubble.

Q. How important to you is winning the singles, to be the first men's wheelchair winner here? Something you've been dreaming of for a long time?
GORDON REID: I mean, it wasn't until this time last year we found out we were going to have the opportunity to play singles here. It's not something that I've been thinking about too much.
I mean, I've had a good record this year. Won Melbourne, get into the final at the French. To make three straight finals is great for my confidence. Feel good. Thought we played well in the match today.
Yeah, I'm just looking forward to getting out there again tomorrow.

Q. (Question regarding a view to Rio.)
ALFIE HEWETT: Definitely, considering we've not beaten the French pair before. This was a massive result for us in terms of confidence going into the Games. I remember saying with quite a lot of the team that we work with, if there was one match, I would really like to beat them before the Games, it would be here.
To do that, it's definitely a massive morale and confidence booster. We do spend a lot of time together back home. I've traveled to Scotland. We've met halfway.
GORDON REID: Haven't been to Norwich yet.
ALFIE HEWETT: So yeah, no, the hard work at home, video analysis, we've looked at the French pair. To finally come up with a game plan that worked today, yeah, definitely a big confidence booster.

Q. The crowd was completely packed. Court 16 was watching, as well. Henman Hill, BBC live. How important is that for wheelchair tennis?
GORDON REID: Yeah, I heard somebody say it was renamed Reid's Ridge now. I don't know if that's going to catch on enough (laughter).
It's amazing to have so much coverage of our matches. One of the main things that we can achieve here, being able to play here this week, is to try and gain a lot of new fans and new followers of our sport.
I think when you see how many people were watching our match today, how into it they were, how much they enjoyed it, how many messages we got after, saying how high quality the match was. I seen everybody on the hill watching it on the big screen. It shows how far our sport has come in terms of priority at these sort of events.
I think it was a really good platform to build from, hopefully go on to bigger and bigger things.

Q. David Cameron was tweeting you. Anybody else?
GORDON REID: David Cameron, Nicola Sturgeon. All the controversial ones. Mark Warburton. I don't know, there's been too many to read.
ALFIE HEWETT: It's just been mental, hasn't it? Wheelchair tennis was trending on Twitter. That's not bad.
GORDON REID: To be a part of that, helping our sport like that, that's a massive achievement in itself. Yeah, I think when you get given an opportunity like that, you got to grab it with both hands.
Yeah, hopefully, like I said, we can just keep building, gain as many new fans as we can.
ALFIE HEWETT: It will be trending in Glasgow, as well.

Q. Fancy taking the trophy back to Ibrox?
GORDON REID: I did it last year with the French, then after the US Open, as well. Sorry, after the Australian Open, they had me out. Yeah, so that would be pretty special if I got invited back to that again.
ALFIE HEWETT: Come to Carrow Road.
GORDON REID: I only do Premier League teams now.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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WIMBLEDON

July 9, 2016

Alfie Hewitt

Gordon Reid