First wheelchair tennis players to achieve a “Golden Slam”

At the US Open on 12 September 2021, just a week after winning Paralympic gold in Tokyo, Japan, Diede de Groot (Netherlands; wheelchair singles) and Dylan Alcott (Australia; quad singles) completed their own “Golden Slams” – winning all four majors and Olympic gold in the same year – at Flushing Meadows in New York. They matched the 1988 achievement of Steffi Graf (Germany), who had stood alone as the only tennis player to achieve a “Golden Slam” for almost 33 years. De Groot beat Yui Kamiji 6-3, 6-2 in New York, hours before Alcott saw off Dutch teenager Niels Vink 7-5, 6-2.

After winning the singles (against Aniek van Koot) and doubles (with van Koot) competitions at the 2022 Australian Open, de Groot stood as a 26-time Grand Slam champion (13 singles and 13 doubles titles, both since 2017) and a two-time Paralympic gold medallist after taking the singles (against Yui Kamiji) and doubles (with van Koot) crowns in Tokyo in 2021.

Alcott’s clean sweep of the tennis majors in 2021 took his Grand Slam tally to 23 (15 singles and eight doubles titles since 2015 and 2018, respectively). The Melbourne, Victoria, native has also collected four Paralympic gold medals: quad singles in 2016 and 2021 and quad doubles in 2016, and at Beijing 2008 he was a member of the Australian wheelchair basketball team who defeated Canada 72-60 in the final.