Wheelchair tennis star Gordon Reid says MBE is the 'icing on the cake'
Wheelchair tennis star Gordon Reid has said his MBE is the ''icing on the cake'' to a wonderful year.
The 25-year-old receives the honour for services to wheelchair tennis.
It rounds off a year which saw him win grand slam singles titles at the Australian Open and Wimbledon, and doubles titles at the French Open and Wimbledon.
At the Paralympics in Rio, he took singles gold and a silver medal in the doubles, and ended 2016 as world number one.
Commenting on his MBE, he said: ''It's a great honour for me, it's been a fantastic year for me, the best year of my career, so to finish it off like this is like the icing on the cake. The year started amazingly for me in Australia with my first grand slam title there and to go on to Wimbledon and win the singles and doubles, and then to finish it off in Rio with the gold and silver medals, there's a lot of things there that I didn't expect would happen this year and I think receiving my MBE is on that list as well, but it's been amazing and I've loved every minute.''
Reid, from Helensburgh, Argyll and Bute, discovered wheelchair tennis after developing rare neurological condition transverse myelitis, which affects the spinal cord, at the age of 12.
He started playing wheelchair tennis in 2005 and became Britain's youngest men's singles national champion in 2007 at the age of 15 and the youngest British men's No.1 shortly before his 18th birthday.
He hopes his MBE might help boost the profile of his sport.
''There's a lot of things which have happened in my career this year which have helped the profile of wheelchair tennis and that's really exciting for me that I can get our sport out in the public eye a little bit more, so hopefully me being included on the list will help that further,'' Reid said.