So Great Britain, and Scotland in particular, had a hero in the tennis world after all on Friday. In fact, they had two of them. Whatever mishaps Andy Murray may have been suffering back home in Glasgow a Glaswegian here was flying the flag in his place, Gordon Reid winning the gold medal in the wheelchair tennis singles final with his English teammate, 18-year-old Alfie Hewett, taking a thoroughly well-deserved silver.

After all their adventures of the past fortnight, on not one front but two, it was almost an anti-climactic ending, Reid proving far too good for his young friend, winning 6-2 6-1. Not that Reid is an old stager himself at just 24. One thing is certain, Britain's future in wheelchair tennis, whether it be singles, doubles or even the quad events with Andy Lapthorne, looks secure.

Numerically Great Britain finished top of the Rio Paralympic Tennis Event medal table for the first time, with six medals in total - one gold, three silvers and two bronze medals.

Meanwhile, Reid and Hewett's gold medal match on the final day followed a seventh straight Dutch gold medal in the women's doubles as singles finalists Jiske Griffioen and Aniek van Koot upgraded the silver medal they won together in London.

Griffioen and van Koot's contributions meant that Netherlands finished level with Australia on gold medals won - both nations having won two. Quad singles gold medallist Dylan Alcott emulated Griffioen by winning singles and doubles gold medals. Seven nations won wheelchair tennis medals in Rio.

Reid and Hewett could be contesting the final stages of major events, in singles and doubles, for years to come. As no less a player than Japan's double Paralympic champion Shingo Kunieda said: "I need to improve more like the British guys. A compliment indeed coming from a player hugely respected by Reid and Hewett.

In fact, Reid has matched his fellow Scot Murray by winning Wimbledon and a gold medal. "It's a different sport, wheelchair tennis and able-bodied tennis but at the same time I'm honoured to be mentioned alongside him," said Reid. "He's someone who has inspired me my whole career and I'll always be able to say I won a gold medal in the same stadium that he did."

It speaks volumes of Hewett's competitive spirit that the teenager was a little disappointed to be going home with silver - in fact two silvers - but he knows fully well the magnitude of what he has achieved; it doesn't need to sink in.

He was the No. 13 seed in the singles and he beat three men higher ranked than himself, including the world No. 2 Joachim Gerard, of Belgium, who ended up taking the bronze - and how happy he was to do so - when he deservedly beat the world No. 1 Stephane Houdet, of France, 6-4 6-2 earlier in the day. Houdet told itftennis.com before the competition began that there would be a big surprise in this singles event and Hewett did not disappoint him.

After dropping his serve in the opening game, Reid took complete control of the match. His left-handed backhand is one of the biggest weapons in wheelchair tennis and he can wield it in any number of ways, whether driving the ball, slicing it or delicately finessing it. The watching Brazilian legend Guga Kuerten, who had a fairly useful one-handed backhand himself, will have appreciated it.

Both Reid and Hewett are such a picture of health, youth and vibrancy that one never thinks of them being disabled; you just enthuse about their technical ability.

"I've played maybe one of the best matches of my life today, I had to to beat Alfie by that scoreline," said Reid. "I had to focus on every point because he's got the ability to turn it around, no matter what the score is because he's a fighter.

"As soon as I won my quarterfinal against [Gustavo] Fernandez, I really knew I was going to win against Houdet and after that, against Alfie today, I felt really confident."

"It's hard, we've come through a lot together the last two years, culminating in winning Wimbledon earlier in the year. A lot of highs together. It's difficult to put all that to one side, especially after playing the doubles final together last night, working together with the same coaching team today, having to work our warm-ups around each other nobody had a clue what to do. But once you get out there on court you're playing to win.

No Englishman and Scotsman playing in the same sport ever got on so well. There is a bit of banter between them about football Reid is a Rangers fan, Hewett a Norwich supporter but otherwise they are ParalympicsGB through and through.

"We're kind of different personalities," said Reid. "Alfie before matches likes to sit in the locker room by himself with his headphones on, I like to sit with some of the other team members, like our massage guy and some of the other coaches and have a chat and just have a laugh and that's the way I stay relaxed.

The final word really belongs to Hewett, the young man who has exceeded all expectations, even his own. "Roll on Tokyo," he said. "There's no better way of going into that than with two silver medals from these Games. So, the next step? Two gold medals.