Hewett and Reid had to dig deep to defeat home favourites and fourth seeds Federic Cattaneo and Stephane Houdet 6-4, 6-3 in an hour and 47 minutes.

The 2016 and 2020 silver medallists move on to the final where they will compete for their first Paralympic wheelchair tennis doubles gold medal and to become the first men's doubles team to complete the career golden slam.

Hewett and Reid have 21 Grand Slam titles together but the Paralympic gold would be the icing on the cake for their incredible doubles partnership.

"It was electric in there," Hewett said. "This is probably the first time we’ve had the crowd against us – usually at Wimbledon they’re for us so it was different, but I loved it.

"It’s something that we thrive in and we want to promote the sport as much as we can and there’s no better way to do it than at a Paralympic Games in front of thousands.

"Regardless of what happens we can be proud that we’ve made it this far again, but I know we’ll be disappointed if we don’t come away with the gold medal, it’s something we’ve been working very hard for. It’s all about going for the win."

In the final they will play Japanese second seeds Takuya Miki and Tokito Oda. Hewett and Reid have beaten the duo in four of their last five Grand Slam finals - including Roland Garros this year.

"We’re used to these courts, we’re used to these conditions," Reid added. "Obviously it’s a slightly different look at the moment with it being the Paralympics but we’ve had great results here.

"We’ve done everything we can to prepare as best as possible for this moment and we’re going to leave everything out there to get over the final step."

While it was a far from comfortable win for the Brits, they will take great encouragement from their performance on the return. In a nervy opening set on serve, they broke the French side five times, needing just one hold from Hewett to clinch a much-needed first set advantage.

The world No.1 and No.2 men’s wheelchair doubles players seemed to have all the momentum in their favour as they moved 2-0 up in the second but Cattaneo and Houdet weren’t going down without a fight.

With the partisan Parisian crowd going wild for every point, the French partnership seemed to be equal to everything the Brits threw at them through the next four games and pulled themselves back into the match at 3-3.

In the business end of the match, Hewett showed exactly why he’s the top-ranked player in the world. A hold to love steadied the ship before some impressive shot-making from Hewett, matched with a winner from Reid to set up a third break point of the game helped the Brits move 5-3 in front.

Reid’s serve hadn’t been the most consistent throughout the match, but with a place in the final on the line he dealt with the pressure. It was the 2016 singles gold medallist who eventually wrapped up the win with an incredible drop shot half volley on their second match point.