Dylan Alcott is some 'cripple'. That is what a few poor misguided children used to taunt him with when he was at school. No doubt the new three-time Paralympic champion across two sports would happily show them his medals and tell them about the life he now leads, travelling the world while being paid to play the sport that he loves.

Winning the quad doubles gold medal here the other night with his best friend Heath Davidson was a hard experience to top, but one of the reasons why he left the world of basketball to return to tennis was to prove himself as an individual and that he did by winning the quad singles title on Wednesday, defeating Andy Lapthorne, of Great Britain, 6-3 6-4.

The outcome was never in much doubt. The Briton looked a shade lethargic after his epic, record four hours and 25 minutes doubles match 24 hours earlier and had to be content with second best, as he more often than not is when facing the Australian.

"I sacrificed everything for this," said Alcott. "I trained harder than anybody in the world and it all paid off in the end - the blisters, the vomiting on court at Melbourne Park, the hill sprints at the MCG [Melbourne Cricket Ground], all these one per centers that we did, it was just to make sure when push came to shove I knew I'd left no stone unturned to win.

When victory was secured on his second match point he spun around and around in his chair before clasping the top of his head as if trying not to let the sheer joy of the moment escape too soon from his memory.

As if life had not dealt him a harsh enough blow with 'the massive tumour that wrapped itself around my spinal cord' when he was a baby, a friend pushed him out of his chair and through a glass window two years ago, severing his hand. It was this additional disability that enabled him to be classified for the quad event.

Typically, Alcott looked on the bright side: "It ruined my basketball career, but at least it started my tennis career again," he said.

It certainly restarted by accident and, in fact, for no other reason than to get a tan so he looked good on television.

"I can honestly tell you I did it to get a tan because I wanted to get a job on tv, working in the Australian media and I thought, 'Oh, I can get fit and play tennis in the sun'. When I first had a hit in the Melbourne sunshine I thought, I'm a lot better at this than when I left the sport. That was because I was a lot fitter from basketball and I had the chair skills.

"Tennis Australia said, 'If you want to do this properly we'll support you' and I said 'I don't want to be supported, I'm a wheelchair tennis player but I want to be supported as a tennis player like Nick Kyrgios is or Sam Stosur is. I don't care that I'm in a wheelchair. If you treat me equally I'll do it and they did, they gave me everything I wanted. They treat me as if I'm Roger Federer.

As for Lapthorne, he believes this is just the start of a long rivalry between himself and the Aussie. I'm going to get myself to No. 2 by the end of the year," he said, "and me and Dylan are going to go at it for the next four years and I'll see him on the centre court in Tokyo and we'll have the rematch."

Alcott himself is more interested in how people with disabilities are perceived and is a motivational speaker when he isn't winning gold medals.

"Any able-bodied person that hasn't watched Paralympic sport you don't know what you are missing," he said, "because not only are we inspirational you hear that all that time, you can stuff that we are entertaining, elite athletes who put on a show."