Queen’s admission about Aussie icon during Zoom call with Dylan Alcott

The tennis champ and Australian of the Year made the Queen giggle during a Zoom call by revealing his London plans.

The Queen has cheekily recalled her fond memories of opening Parliament House more than three decades ago in a call to some of the country’s most prominent figures.

Her Majesty was reminded of the engagement by Governor-General David Hurley while on a Zoom dial in with this year’s Australian of the Year winners.

Mr Hurley informed the Queen their chat took place exactly 34 years after she opened Parliament House in Canberra.

Australian of the Year Dylan Alcott heading up a junior wheelchair tennis clinic at the Australian Open in Melbourne.

“It might invoke some memories of your time here,” Mr Hurley said.

“I don’t know whether it’s still there but there’s a little pond inside,” the Queen replied.

“I wondered how many people had fallen into it.”

The 96-year-old’s cheeky quip was one of several during the call with tennis champ Dylan Alcott also making the monarch laugh by dropping a joke or two.

During the call, Alcott spoke to the monarch about his decorated career on the court before detailing just what he’s been up to since retiring after the 2022 Australian Open.

“I’ve retired now,” he said.

“I’m looking forward to coming to Wimbledon and drinking a Pimms this time rather than playing the whole time.”

The Queen responded with a little chuckle and an approving “oh, right!” upon hearing Alcott’s planned activities while in the UK.

“Yes, it will be fun. I’ve had a great career, but it is time for me to do something else and to use my platform to help more people and I’m excited about the opportunity,” he said.

However, Alcott also used the conversation to inform the Queen of his journey from tennis player to receiving one of the country’s highest honours.

“I still can’t believe it but I got named Australian of the Year, it is just ridiculous – it is such a huge honour. I’m a proud Australian,” he said.

“I think you can see I’m in a wheelchair. I’ve been in a wheelchair all my life and it was lucky enough to win four gold medals in wheelchair tennis and wheelchair basketball.

“And I won four grand slam titles, unfortunately won a couple of Wimbledon titles, beat some Great Britain player which I was happy about, but maybe you weren’t happy about.”

The friendly rivalry inspired another laugh from Queen before Alcott continued to detail how much the award meant to him and his work within the disability sector.

Dylan Alcott honoured on Rod Laver Arena with girlfriend Chantelle Otten. Photo: Michael Klein

“The reason I get out of bed every day is to change perceptions, so he people with disability like me can get out and live the lives they deer of to live,” he said.

“I want to use my platform to shine a light on that, and to be given this honour to be Australian of the Year, I get emotional talking about it, to be honest, because when I was a young kid, I used to hate myself, Your Majesty and I thought if anybody in a wheelchair let alone myself would have been Australian of the Year, I wouldn’t have believed you.”

The pair were joined by several others on the call including Young Australian of the Year, Dr Daniel Nour, Australia’s Local Hero, Shanna Whan and Senior Australian of the Year Valmai Dempsey.