Great Britain claimed the men’s title at the BNP Paribas World Team Cup for the second time since 2015, beating France 2-0 as the ITF’s flagship wheelchair tennis team event drew to a close on Saturday at the Larry and Mary Greenspon Israel Tennis Centre in Ramat Hasharon.
Gordon Reid won six games in a row to clinch the opening set of his singles rubber against Nicolas Peifer. After taking the initiative in the second set, Reid found it much more difficult to wrap up up victory, but he opened up a 5-0 lead in the tie-break and ultimately triumphed 6-1 7-6(3).
"It feels great. It’s been a long time since the last one and we’ve come close a couple of time since, so It’s amazing to get over the line today and to do it in convincing style, too," said Reid.
"Nico wasn’t really giving me any rhythm today and was pretty unpredictable, so I was happy with how I moved around court and how I approached it, how I focused and how I stepped it up towards the end."
Alfie Hewett made an even more impressive start to the second singles rubber against Stephane Houdet and then came back from 2-0 down to wrap up victory 6-0 7-5 after an hour and 18 minutes.
"The last couple of years have been tough for us. We have a great team and we have the potential to win it every single time, but we haven’t pulled through those finals in the last two years," said Hewett.
"We didn’t lose a singles match the whole week and that just shows how high our level has been. That first set for me today was probably the best set of tennis I’ve ever played. But it’s not just one performance that wins the title and it was a top performance from Gordon today.."
Great Britain’s only other previous victory in the men’s event came in 2015 after another 2-0 victory over France in the final.
Read more at https://www.itftennis.com/news/305694.aspx#23mXvwEEL43JDRS9.99
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