2016 Rio Paralympics: Aussie Dylan Alcott, Heath Davidson win tennis gold in quad doubles
AUSSIES Dylan Alcott and Heath Davidson have clawed their way back from big second and third set deficits to win quad doubles gold at the Rio Paralympics.
UP IN the stands, they chanted, they clapped, they sang “C’mon Aussie, C’mon”. One bloke even necked beer from his shoe.
Because this is what Australians do – even in Rio.
And the men they cheered, Dylan Alcott and Heath Davidson, did what Australian athletes do. They dug in. They rallied. They fought back and, from holes that at least twice seemed impossible to escape, they won Paralympic Games gold.
“If you play that match 100 hundred times and you’re down 4-6, 1-4, love-30, you lose that match 99 times,” Alcott said.
“To pull that out, win five in a row, come out after the third set average, 3-0 down, and win – I’m so proud of what we’ve achieved.”
Alcott and Davidson combined to win just Australia’s second wheelchair tennis Paralympic gold medal, and its first in doubles competition.
They overcame a gallant but shattered US pairing of Nick Taylor and David Wagner to triumph 2-1.
It was the only gold on day six for Australia, nudging them above New Zealand to reclaim sixth spot on the medal tally.
The victory elevates Alcott, 25, to rare company in Australia as a dual Paralympics gold medallist in two sports.
The country’s last gold in wheelchair tennis was delivered by David Hall at the 2000 Sydney Games.
In brutal heat following an afternoon of centre-court postponements due to stifling 36C temperatures, the childhood mates from Melbourne bounced back from a horror situation that had them a set down and trailing by a break midway through the second set.
Then, having scrambled back to a set all, they again fell to a dire 0-3 and two breaks down in the deciding third set.
“Heath just said he thought we were going to win the whole time,” Alcott said.
“I wasn’t as confident, the way I was playing. I was having a bit of a Barry Crocker early on.
“I’m just so proud of Heath, he’s one of my best mates since I was 10 and to look at him on the court so pumped up when I hit a winner, it just gives me that fire to go out and dominate.”
The gong looked a dropped chance early on after an error-riddled opening set.
A fightback in the second squared the match but again the pair lapsed in the pivotal third, slumping to a 0-3 deficit with two broken serves.
Another fightback built on a run for four successive games left the contest in the balance, before they broke the US serve at 6-5 to seal the comeback.
Davidson, 29 and a Paralympics debutant, only joined with Alcott as a doubles pairing this year.
He said the victory would take a while to sink in.
“I still don’t think it’s possible, if I’m completely honest,” Davidson said.
“The World Team Cup (in May) was our first real competition against tough opponents so then I thought if I get in to the Paralympics I might have a shot.
“I guess everything fell into place.”
At Beijing in 2008 Alcott was a 17-year-old rookie in the victorious Rollers wheelchair basketball side, and claimed silver with the group four years ago in London.
The last Australian to win Paralympic gold in two sports was Greg Smith, who secured an athletics-wheelchair basketball double in London four years ago.
Originally published as 2016 Rio Paralympics: Aussie Dylan Alcott, Heath Davidson win tennis gold in quad doubles
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