Gordon Reid smashes world’s top three players

It was Reid's second win of his career over the two-time Paralympic men's singles gold medallist, having first beaten Kunieda in the semi-finals of the South African Open in April this year.

Gordon Reid and Jiske Griffioen won the men’s and women’s singles titles at the Open de la Baie de Somme, as the latest ITF 1 Series tournament to join the NEC Wheelchair Tennis Tour came to a close on Sunday (6 October) in Rue, France.

Spain’s Martin de la Puente won the junior singles title for the second year.

World No. 6 Reid, who turned 22 on Wednesday, the same day as the draw took place in France, clinched the first ITF 1 Series men’s singles title of his career after a 6-7(5), 6-3, 6-3 win over world No. 2 Stephane Houdet.

The Brit ended the tournament having beaten the world’s top-three ranked men’s singles players in successive days.

Reid saw a 5-2 lead slip away in the first set of the final before Houdet clinched a tiebreak.

However, Reid also opened up 5-2 leads in both the second and third sets and although Houdet took the eighth game in both sets Reid held on for his third career win over the world No. 2, all of which have come this year.

Reid began his singles campaign on Friday, reeling off six games in a row in the second set of his quarterfinal against Dutch world No. 3 Maikel Scheffers to complete a 6-4, 6-1 victory and his third career win over Scheffers.

The Brit then came up against world No. 1 Shingo Kunieda of Japan in Saturday's semifinals and Reid clinched a crucial second set tie-break before taking the first five games of the third and deciding set, at which stage Kunieda retired with an injury.

It was Reid's second win of his career over the two-time Paralympic men's singles gold medallist, having first beaten Kunieda in the semi-finals of the South African Open in April this year.

Griffioen wins ninth ITF 1 Series singles title

A month away from starting the defence of her NEC Wheelchair Tennis Masters title in early November, world No. 3 Griffioen clinched the ninth ITF 1 Series women singles title of her career after defeating German world No. 2 and top-seeded Sabine Ellerbrock, 6-3, 6-4.

Griffioen opened the final by taking a 3-0 lead, but Ellerbrock broke back and had chances to level the first set at 3-3. However, after the sixth game went to deuce Griffioen maintained a clear advantage and went on to open up a 5-2 lead en route to taking the set.

Ellerbrock had come from a set down to win her semifinal and suggested that she might force a deciding set once again after securing an immediate break at the start of the second set. However, Griffioen broke back and denied Ellerbrock the chance of a 4-2 lead before taking the final two games to close out the victory.

It was Griffioen’s third win over Ellerbrock in five matches this season and the Dutchwoman’s first win in three finals against her German opponent, including at Roland Garros, where Ellerbrock won her first Grand Slam title.

Griffioen, who beat Ellerbrock to win the women’s singles bronze medal at the London 2012 Paralympics, now leads 10-2 in career head-to-heads between the two players.

Having beaten Mitchel Graauw 6-1, 6-2 in their fourth round-robin group match on Saturday in Rue, de la Puente produced a similarly dominant performance as the two players met in the junior singles final. De la Puente defeated his Dutch opponent 6-2, 6-1 to secure his second successive Open de la Baie de Somme title.