We examine how Gordon Reid got to the French Open final

Britain's Gordon Reid came into this year's French Open determined to make his mark on the draw and through a series of three-set thrillers, marathon matches and captivating comebacks he has certainly done that.

The world No 8 made it to the fourth Grand Slam men's wheelchair singles final of his career by consistently playing the style of tennis that got him to the top of the world rankings a few years ago.

He topped it off with victory over the world No 1 and defending champion Shingo Kunieda, 2-6 7-6 (7-2) 6-2, in the semi-finals.

However, he was unable to find a way past Argentina's Gustavo Fernandez who beat him 6-1 6-3 in the final.

Reid has, however, made his mark at Roland Garros and we take a look at how the Scot did it.....

He's learning from the past

This time last year Reid had bowed out at the semi-final stage to the very player he beat this year, Kunieda, and even last week when they met on the clay in Amiens the result went firmly in the Japanese player's favour.

They are results that Reid himself has admitted he was disappointed in, but this week in Paris has seen him change the story and the scoreline in spectacular fashion.

Speaking to Sky Sports after his semi-final, Reid said: "I feel like this win is a big step forward for me. Last week I don't feel like I played really badly against Shingo, I just didn't make great decisions.

"I changed that around today, though, and I felt like I was playing some of my best points in that match so there are a lot of positives to take from it moving forward."

He's managing his emotions

Reid has made no secret of the fact that in the last year he's struggled when it comes to psychological aspect of the game.

But watching both his quarter-final against Belgian's Joachim Gerard and the semi-final against Kunieda you could see there was a huge shift and he was clearly feeling comfortable again when it came to getting himself out of sticky situations.

He said: "Against Shingo I knew I was beating myself up a bit too much in the first set but I also could see that I was creating a lot of opportunities for myself and a lot of game-point and break-point opportunities and I wasn't taking any of them and that was very frustrating.

"But I got stuck in again similar to the way I did with Jo the day before and I managed to turn it around because when you're playing Shingo there's never going to be a time when he's just going to give you the match so you have to keep working for it.

"There was maybe a little wobble again from me towards the end in the second from last game but I took him on in that last game and I finished off strong."

He's back at the net

One element of his game that makes Reid so watchable is the variety of shots he puts away with what looks like ease, particularly at the net.

He's also got a lot of patience and knows that if he gets his opponent into a long rally not only does it help him get into a rhythm but it also more often than not forces them to make unforced errors as they are made to try harder to make their next shot a winner.

The last 12 months or so, though, we haven't really seen as much of this type of play as we would like from the former Australian Open and Wimbledon singles champion, but this week as Reid's on-court confidence has grown we've been treated to many an expertly-handled volley and drop-shot coming off his racket.

"My touch at the net is one of my strengths," he said: "Of course you need to have the heavy shots to actually create the opportunities that allow you to come into the net but I definitely feel I'm setting myself up well for those opportunities at the minute and when I get there I'm pretty clinical."

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