Dylan Alcott has created history on the way to winning gold in the men’s quad singles at Rio 2016, after claiming a straight sets 6-3 6-4 win over Great Britain’s Andy Lapthorne.
The result sees Alcott add a second Paralympic title to his Rio resume after winning gold in the quad doubles with fellow Australian Heath Davidson yesterday.
The VIS athlete was forced to work tirelessly for victory in his singles final, with World No. 4 Lapthorne regularly forcing Alcott to dig deep for points.
Alcott served at 65 per cent for the match and generated 39 winners to Lapthorne’s 14, while the Brit yielded only 18 unforced errors, to Alcott’s 37 as he persisted with his aggressive approach.
A clearly emotional Alcott said the result had been a weight off his mind, after heading into the campaign as the top ranked player.
“You ask any professional tennis player, able-bodied or not, and they’ll tell you it’s just a relief to be honest,” Alcott said of claiming his title.
Alcott thanked his coaches, friends and family, but made his biggest statement to the Australians at home living with disability.
“For anybody with a disability, get into sport and get around it, cause it changed my life and for any able-bodied person who hasn’t watched Paralympic sport – you are missing out, because not only are we inspirational, which is what you hear all the time, you can stuff that because we’re entertaining elite athletes and we put on a show,” he said.
