Alcott won’t tempt fate on Golden Slam
DON’T even try talking to Australian wheelchair tennis star Dylan Alcott about the Golden Slam.
He’s not superstitious but he’s heard all that before and is pretty sure nothing good comes from speaking out about the holy grail of his sport.
“I don’t think about it. Everyone talks about it, but I don’t think about it,” he said.
“I’ll do my best to win it, but if I don’t win it, I still got a great girlfriend, a great life, a great family. The sun will come up tomorrow.”
To complete the Golden Slam, Allcott needs to win the Australian Open, French Open, Wimbledon, US Open and Paralympic singles titles in the same calendar year.
He’s already won in Melbourne, Paris and London and is gunning for the Paralympic gold medal in Tokyo, against Dutchman Sam Schroder. That match had been scheduled for Thursday but was postponed. Then it’s off to New York for the final leg.
He was the overwhelming favourite to win gold in Tokyo but wasn’t taking anything for granted because he’s been down that path before.
“I had a chance to win the Grand Slam in 2019,” Alcott said.
“I won Australia, won French, won Wimbledon, and at the US, I got to the final and got pumped. I got smashed because I was thinking about it.
“So I learned my lesson. Never again.
“It was devastating. Because I built it up, I had an expectation to win.”
No matter how hard he tries to play things down, the pressure on Alcott to complete the Gold Slam is immense.
Already one of the greatest players of all time, with 14 singles and eight doubles Grand Slam titles under his belt, he also won two gold medals at the last Paralympics in Rio but is already 30 and being pursued by a new crop of talented youngsters.
The player he beat in the semi-finals, Dutchman Niels Vink, is just 18 and pushed the Aussie all the way before going down in three sets, and if Alcott needed a reminder of how difficult his quest is, he only needs to look at Novak Djokovic, who has won the first three Grand Slam events in 2021 but slipped up at the Tokyo Olympics.
“Everyone was talking about Novak, and it didn’t go as well for him, so I’m not talking about it,” Allcott said.
“I think about everything else in my life, and that helps my tennis because it made my tennis.
“It might sound strange, but it means less to me now because of everything else that I have and I do. To advocate for people with disabilities is more important to me than winning tennis tournaments.
“I can do that with or without the Golden Slam.”