Hewett and Reid reflect on changing status since Rio 2016

Compatriots, friends, partners, rivals: Great Britain’s Alfie Hewett and Gordon Reid operate in a complicated space in their tennis careers – team-mates one moment, competitors the next.

This was never truer than at Rio 2016, when a dominant Reid and teenage Hewett claimed Paralympic men’s doubles silver before meeting in the men’s singles gold medal, where Reid – the elder of the pair by six years – reached the top step of the podium as Hewett took home a second silver medal.

Five years on, Reid is back to defend his singles title in Tokyo, while Hewett is determined to move one step higher on the both podiums. Both made impressive starts to their Paralympic campaigns on Saturday, Reid racing past South Africa’s Leon Els 6-2 6-0 for a "solid start," before Hewett dispatched Kamil Fabisiak of Poland 6-1 6-2.

“I think the level was good from me, but nowhere near my best,” said Hewett, now 23 years old, the world No. 2, and winner of two Roland Garros titles in the last 12 Covid-affected months. “There’s still lots to work on and improve. But as a first match goes, I’m content.”

For Reid, seeded No. 5 at his fourth Paralympic Games, arriving in Tokyo as defending champion bears little meaning. One of the sure-fire contenders in Rio, he believes others see him as an outside shot to repeat the feat at the Ariake Tennis Park this week – and that suits him fine.

“At Rio 2016, I think I was one of the favourites going in,” said the Scot. “I’d had a great season already that year, I’d won two Slams and made the final of another, so a lot of people were backing me to win.

“This year, I’m maybe more one of the underdogs. There’s a couple of players that have had better years than me and are maybe more like the favourites. But I think that suits me. I think it’s a bad idea for anyone to write me off!

“It’s a different feeling, but being here, having been in big matches and those medal matches back in Rio gives me that confidence I can do it again.”

And the twin final appearances could happen again, at least in theory. Hewett and Reid are the runaway favourites for doubles gold in Tokyo having won the last seven Grand Slam doubles titles dating back to the 2019 US Open, while they are on opposite sides of a highly competitive men’s singles draw.

Hewett is projected to meet Belgium’s Joachim Gerard in the semi-finals, while potential clashes with Argentina’s Gustavo Fernandez and Japanese world No. 1 Shingo Kunieda lie in wait in the quarter-finals and semi-finals respectively, should the seedings run true.

Gerard, Fernandez, Kunieda – all three, along with Stefan Olsson, have won multiple Grand Slam singles titles since Rio 2016, which marks the last of Reid’s major singles titles. But none have been more successful at the Slams in that spell than Hewett, who won the first of his five Grand Slams at Roland Garros in 2017.

“The depth of quality in wheelchair tennis is getting better,” believes Hewett, “And I think the level, as well. It’s not only the amount of people that can contend this year, but also the quality.

“Looking back at Rio 2016, I got a silver, but I look at my game back then, and it is so much better now. There are so many areas that I’ve improved, I think if the player from back then was here today, he wouldn’t stand a chance. That just shows how far the game has come in five years.”

A Hewett-Reid repeat run to both the singles and doubles finals would be a brilliant achievement, though Hewett would certainly hope to reverse the result of their singles gold medal clash. Now it is the younger man that ranks among the players Reid believes others will place above him in the contenders' stakes in Tokyo – and with all that has happened in the five years since their medal-winning exploits in Rio, has their rivalry-partnership dynamic changed?

“Nah, we’ve played many times,” Hewett insists. “Obviously, Rio was one of the big ones. And we’re good friends off the court as well, we respect each other at the singles events. There’s always that possibility that we could play each other, and numerous times we’ll be on court against each other in the morning and in the afternoon we’re with each other.

“We have a common goal, which is to win. Regardless of singles and doubles, we respect that.”