Alcott and Fernandez eye calendar year Grand Slams
Australia’s Dylan Alcott and Argentina’s Gustavo Fernandez attempt to become the first wheelchair players to complete a calendar year Grand Slam of single titles at all four majors this week at the US Open in New York.
Alcott and Fernandez are among 20 players who will contest the men’s, women’s and quad singles and doubles events at the last Grand Slam of the decade from Thursday, with Alfie Hewett, Diede de Groot and Alcott starting the US Open Wheelchair Tennis Competition as the defending champions.
On the back of winning his third successive Parapan American Games men’s singles gold medal, world No. 1 Fernandez will bid to follow up his first Wimbledon title with his first US Open title, having previously reached the final in New York in 2014 and the semi-finals for the past two years.
Shingo Kunieda is likely to be among the biggest challengers to Fernandez. Currently with 43 Grand Slam titles to his name, the world No. 2 is just one Grand Slam singles or doubles title short of equalling Esther Vergeer’s all-time record of 44 titles at the majors after partnering Fernandez to win the men’s doubles at Roland Garros in June.
While Fernandez is searching for his first US Open men’s singles title, Kunieda has lifted the trophy in New York six times. Before Wimbledon added men’s and women’s singles titles to its competition schedule in 2016 Kunieda had won the other three Grand Slam titles in the same calendar year on five different occasions, most recently in 2015.
It’s been a big year for the quad division of wheelchair tennis, with the introduction of quad singles and doubles events on the competition schedule at both Roland Garros and Wimbledon.
After winning his fifth Australian Open title on Rod Laver Arena at the Australian Open in January, world No. 1 Alcott is now looking to emulate Laver’s achievement in winning a calendar year Grand Slam after becoming the inaugural Roland Garros quad singles champion in June and the inaugural Wimbledon champion in July.
The Melbourne 28-year-old beat USA’s world No. 2 David Wagner to win the finals at Melbourne Park and Roland Garros, while Britain’s Andy Lapthorne finished runner-up to Alcott on the grass at Wimbledon.
Both 2014 US Open champion Lapthorne and three-time US Open champion Wagner re-oppose in New York, where Wagner’s 2017 victory brought Alcott’s last defeat in a Grand Slam final. The Australian will be aiming for his third US Open title, having previously triumphed in 2015 and 2018.
While Alcott and Fernandez are looking to complete the calendar year Grand Slam, women’s singles world No. 1 Diede de Groot was on track in her efforts to do the same up until the Wimbledon, where she lost out in the final to current world No. 3, fellow Dutchwoman and 2013 US Open champion Aniek van Koot.
However, de Groot does have the distinction of having become the first wheelchair player to hold singles titles at all four majors at the same time. She achieved that after winning Roland Garros for the first time in June and now turns her attention to trying to make it back-to-back US Open titles.
De Groot and Van Koot are among three former US Open champions in the women’s field of eight players aiming for the title this year. World No. 2 Yui Kamiji is the only one of the three to have so far been victorious in New York twice, winning in 2014 and 2017, while De Groot, Kamiji and Van Koot have contested all three Grand Slam finals between them so far this season.