Dylan Alcott has announced that he will retire from tennis after the 2022 Australian Open (Photo: Dylan Alcott/Twitter)
Dylan Alcott and Sam Schroder will play against one another for the fourth time in the past 12 months. Quad Wheelchair Singles has a new rivalry and tonight Schroder looks to be the first to beat the Australian in 2021.
There was a 725-day wait for quad wheelchair tennis to return to Wimbledon. At the inaugural Quad Wheelchair Singles tournament at The Championships in 2019, Alcott claimed the title whilst a then 19-year-old Schroder was yet to play in his first Grand Slam.
Alcott cruised through his semi-final winning 6-2 6-2 over American David Wagner, dominating on serve with 11 aces to the American’s two.
The Australian’s weakest part of his game was at the net reluctantly coming up nine times, whilst Wagner won 14 points at the net from the 26 times he came forward.
21-year-old Schroder may have reached three of the past four Grand Slam finals but he was still the unseeded player against Englishman Andy Lapthorne.
The Dutch star didn’t have the easy time that Alcott did, battling to win the first set but dropping the second in a tiebreak. However, he rallied to convincingly win the third set and reach the final alongside Alcott.
| Dylan Alcott | 6 | 6 |
| David Wagner | 2 | 2 |
| Sam Schroder | 7 | 6[5] | 6 |
| Andy Lapthorne | 5 | 7[7] | 3 |
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Alcott and Schroder might be singles rivals but they united in the Quad Wheelchair doubles final, with their semi-final singles opponents looking for revenge.
It was the second time Alcott and Schroder had come together for doubles and it was a similar story to the last time.
During the 2021 French Open, the Australian convincingly took down Wagner while Schroder defeated Lapthorpe in their respective semi-finals.
The finalists came together to play the losers in the doubles final and the victors in the doubles were Wagner and Lapthorpe.
There was a slight twist this time. At the French Open, the third set was settled in a tiebreak style first to 10 points. However, at Wimbledon, the third set was played as a true set.
Despite a rocky first set, which saw Alcott/Schroder win their only game by breaking serve, they managed to get back in it in the second, shaking off the demons of going down a break early to level the match.
Lapthorne/Wagner blinked first in the third, going down a break early in the third but quickly broke back. It was the hold of service that was crucial and they sealed it with an ace despite the Australian-Dutch pair threatening to break again.
From there they had complete control forcing Alcott and Schroder to fight tooth and nail to win a fourth game and not allow themselves to lose the championship off of one of their service games.
But there was no coming back and despite singles heartbreak, Lapthorne and Wagner were able to claim a second Quad Wheelchair Doubles title for the year.
| Dylan Alcott/Sam Schroder | 1 | 6 | 4 |
| Andy Lapthorne/Dylan Wagner | 6 | 3 | 6 |
It’s an exciting night for Australian tennis fans who can tune into Alcott chasing his third grand slam title for the year at 8 pm and watch Ash Barty try to clinch her second career grand slam title at 11 pm against Karolina Pliskova.
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