AUSTRALIAN OPEN

February 16, 2021

Alfie Hewett

Gordon Reid

Press Conference

HEWETT-REID/Houdet-Peifer

7-5, 7-6

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. Talk us through the match from both of your perspectives, what it feels like to be Australian Open champions.

ALFIE HEWETT: Yeah, feels amazing. We got our first win together last year here. To get it back-to-back, yeah, it's an awesome feeling, especially with the situation at the moment, not knowing how many opportunities we're going to have to compete this year. Yeah, it feels brilliant to be going home with a trophy in the bag.

GORDON REID: To be competing right now is an absolute honor. To get to a final and bring home the trophy for the second year in a row is something we're both really proud of.

Q. You have just equaled the record for the most successful British partnership in Grand Slams, with 10 titles. Add that to your accolades. What do you think made the difference today? Obviously it's always a tight match against them. What do you think you did well today?

ALFIE HEWETT: I think, to be honest, really kept the team together in this match. His level was consistently high. His movement around the court was really, really good. I was a bit wobbly at times, came in and out. As a pair, we were really clinical when it mattered, which is obviously at the ends of each set.

Really, really pleased. Bit scrappy, but at the end of the day we have the title, and that's ultimately what counts.

Q. Have you seen anything online or social media recently about the 10 titles, the record-equaling achievement?

GORDON REID: First I heard of it was Alfie telling me after the match point. Which was a surprise to me. No, I mean, obviously it's been an amazing ride. We were saying since 2014, whenever it was, we first started playing with each other. Alfie was just kind of a young kid coming up, finishing school. I think I was No. 1 in the world doubles at the time. It was a bit after gamble, to be honest, at that stage. Obviously one that I'm happy I took. It's paying off nicely for us now.

Q. How satisfying is it to finish like this today?

ALFIE HEWETT: Yeah, it's always going to be close matches with those guys, if you look at the head-to-heads. Never really straightforward. There are going to be occasions where that goes against us. On that day they were better in that tiebreaker, but there were only a few points in it.

We came into this competition knowing that we still were playing good tennis together, we're a really strong partnership, the dynamic between us. Yeah, we've come here and put that behind us, managed to play well.