Dylan Alcott breaks down in ‘all class’ final goodbye

Australian champion Dylan Alcott has wiped away tears with an emotional farewell just minutes after his dream turned into a nightmare.

Australian champion Dylan Alcott has wiped away tears during a farewell speech following his defeat in the men’s quad wheelchair final at the Australian Open.

The fifteen-time Grand Slam champion and four-time Paralympic gold medallist is walking away as an icon of Australian sport — and his final speech as a professional tennis payer showed exactly why.

The 31-year-old’s rollercoaster week was all too much for him and he was visibly flat after coughing up the first set against friendly rival Sam Schroder. He had just two days earlier been honoured as the 2022 Australian of the Year.

From there, Schroder blasted his way to a 7-5 6-0 win, where he won nine consecutive service games.

Alcott was relatively stoic after Schroder wrapped up the match and they greeted each other at the net with a warm embrace.

Dylan Alcott. Photo by Aaron FRANCIS / AFP.

It was only during his runner’s-up trophy acceptance speech that Alcott’s emotions got the better of him.

“Congratulations Sam, you deserved to win today, you were definitely the better player,” he said.

“To the Australian Open, I love you so much. Thanks so much to Jane [Hrdlicka], Craig [Tiley] and everybody, for changing my life and backing someone who is disabled to be the front of your brand.

“It’s not all around the world when every single locker room we go into there’s wheelchair tennis on. It started on this court, right here together, so I’m very thankful.

“To my team, I love you all so much. It’s been an incredible eight, nine, 31 years for some of us. It’s my mum’s birthday today, happy birthday mum, I love you.

“I’m really the luckiest guy in the world, and I didn’t need to win today to realise that. It would have been nice to win, to be honest, but I’m still the luckiest person in this country, if not the luckiest person in the world.

“To my beautiful friends and family... you know I hated myself so much when I was growing up but the reason I don’t is because of you, so thankyou so much.”

He was given a standing ovation as he tried to compose himself before he made a final thankyou to his fans.

Dylan Alcott is a class act. Photo by Quinn Rooney/Getty Images.

Schroder was classy in his post-match speech, taking the opportunity to pay tribute to Alcott.

“You’ve inspired so many people to get out there and play sports,” Schroder said.

“I hope to one day be able to do even one small part of that as well... so thank you for all that you’ve done.”

His voiced wavered at points during the address and he had to briefly take a moment away from the microphone to compose himself.

Alcott was this week honoured as the 2022 Australian of the year on the back of his extraordinary service to the community His extensive charity work with Australians with disabilities, includes his work through his Dylan Alcott Foundation and music festival Ability Fest — which is Australia’s first all-access music festival.

He has made sport for Australians with disabilities more visible than it has ever been — a legacy that has raised him to be an icon of Australian sport.

Popularly recognised as the greatest quad tennis player of all time, Alcott now says he hopes to use his platform to continue to shape change in the lives of Australians with a disability.

Alcott has won seven Australian Open titles and will hope to go out with an eighth title before ending his stunning career.

Australia's Dylan Alcott had one of those days. Photo by Aaron FRANCIS / AFP.

Alcott has also won three French Opens, two Wimbledon titles and three US Opens — as well as eight doubles grand slam titles.

While Australia mainly knows Alcott as a tennis champion, he started his career in wheelchair basketball, winning a gold at the Beijing Paralympics and silver in London before he moved to tennis in 2014.

Since then, Alcott has dominated the quad singles world, winning singles and doubles gold at the Rio de Janeiro Paralympics, while claiming silver in doubles in Tokyo along with his singles gold.

The 30-year-old has had a successful media career and has many other irons in the fire.He has a consulting company, a food company, his foundation, wants to get into acting and even has a script he’s written.

His entire life has been a feel-good script worthy of a Hollywood blockbuster.

Dylan Alcott by the numbers

Career-high singles ranking: World No. 1 (first achieved in June 2015)

Career-high doubles ranking: World No. 1 (first achieved in September 2019)

Grand Slam quad wheelchair titles: 15 singles, 8 doubles

Australian Open: 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021 singles titles; 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021 doubles (all with Australian Heath Davidson)

Roland Garros: 2019, 2020, 2021 singles titles; 2019 doubles (with American David Wagner)

Wimbledon: 2019, 2021 singles titles; 2019 doubles (with Brit Andy Lapthorne)

US Open: 2015, 2018, 2021 singles titles; 2019, 2020 doubles (both with Lapthorne)

Paralympic Games record: Four gold medals, two silver medals

Beijing 2008 gold medallist with Australian Rollers basketball team

London 2012 silver medallist with Australian Rollers basketball team

Rio 2016 singles and doubles (with Davidson) gold medallist quad wheelchair tennis

Tokyo 2020 singles gold medallist quad wheelchair tennis; doubles silver medallist (with Davidson)