Australia’s Dylan Alcott has defeated Sam Schroder 7-6(2) 6-1 to take out the gold medal in the wheelchair tennis quad singles at the Tokyo Paralympics.
The win keeps alive Alcott’s quest for a golden slam – winning all four majors and a gold medal in the same year.
His Dutch opponent gave the 30-year-old plenty to think about, particularly in the first set, but Alcott was able to wrestle back the momentum to claim a straight-sets win.
After breaking Schroder in the second game of the match, Alcott looked to have the ascendency in the opening set, before he dropped two breaks to go down 5-3.
He was able to rally and force a tie-break which he controlled to win 7-2 and claim the first set.
Alcott again started the second set brightly and picked up an early break.
Seventh heaven 🙌
— 7Sport (@7Sport) September 4, 2021
After seven deuces, Dylan Alcott breaks Sam Schroeder to take a 4-1 lead in the second set.#Tokyo2020 | #Paralympics pic.twitter.com/McPh6nc7Kn
Both players seemed to sense the significance of the marathon fifth game which went to deuce an incredible seven times before Alcott eventually broke the 21-year-old's serve again.
Alcott wouldn’t drop another game as he took the second set 6-1 to win a second individual Paralympic gold medal to go with the one he won in Rio.
The Golden Slam dream is still alive 🙌
— 7Sport (@7Sport) September 4, 2021
And still, @DylanAlcott is the #WheelchairTennis quad singles Paralympic champion 🇦🇺🥇@SamsungAU | #Tokyo2020 pic.twitter.com/FrzTlPc26r
The Victorian now has a total of four gold medals – he also won the wheelchair tennis quad doubles in Rio and wheelchair basketball gold in Beijing.
Having already claimed the Australian Open, French Open and Wimbledon singles titles in 2021, Alcott will now look to make history with a US Open title as well.
Steffi Graf is the only person to achieve the feat, doing so in 1988.
More to come.