12 July 2019
Hewett and Reid suffer Wimbledon doubles defeat
Gordon Reid and Alfie Hewett have suffered knocks in the past, and are sure that their latest setback will only serve to fire them on to greater heights.
The duo’s run of three consecutive wheelchair doubles titles at the All England Club was finally ended by Stefan Olsson and Joachim Gerard as they emerged 6-4 6-2 victors on court 3.
And 11-time Grand Slam winner Reid is well aware that defeat is all part-and-parcel of elite-level sport.
“Nobody goes through their career winning everything and a lot of times you learn a lot more in defeat than victory, so we’ll be looking back on this week and seeing what we’ve done well, what we need to improve and trying to get better for the rest of the year,” he said.
“I think we made too many errors. We were a little bit off the pace and gave them too many points in what was a really tight set that could’ve gone either way.
“Second set they served very well, and again probably made a few too many errors. We weren’t as clinical in the big points as we were in the semi-final.”
Coming through a gruelling three-set semi-final in 2hrs 23m on Friday, the pair looked to once again be settling in for the long haul with a series of lengthy games early in the first.
Unable to dig it out as they lost out 6-4, Olsson and Gerard rammed home their advantage in the second, wrapping up the match in solid style.
But Norwich native Hewett believes that he and Reid can still take plenty of positives from a week that ultimately yielded no silverware.
“We both said that to get a chance to play on court 3 again would be amazing, and it happened,” he said.
“They turned out in numbers and that’s what you want to see. We’re disappointed not to get the result, but having the crowd behind you every step of the way, it’s still a good memory to have.
“I think this week we really stepped it up. It wasn’t to be today, but I think our level was still a lot better than most of the year, so that’s a real positive and we can kick on now.”
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