Schroder, Vink end Alcott and Davidson's Australian Open doubles reign
It’s fair to say that Niels Vink’s second Australian Open has been pretty eventful so far, but the 19-year-old will likely have fonder memories of the second act than the first after partnering fellow Dutchman Sam Schroder to beat hometown heroes Dylan Alcott and Heath Davidson in the semi-finals of the quad doubles.
In securing their 6-1 7-6(3) victory Alcott and Davidson the top seeds ended the Australian duo’s run of four successive titles at Melbourne Park, achieving something that Vink was narrowly unable to do in his singles quarter-final, despite threatening to gate crash what the host nation intends to be a celebratory week for Alcott as he moves into retirement at the end of his home Grand Slam.
“I'm feeling really good now. Yesterday after my singles, my arm hurt a lot and I woke up this morning and the cramp was gone,” said Vink as he recalled the events of the previous 24 hours.
Vink’s distress was apparent to everyone watching the world No.3’s singles quarter-final against world No.1 Alcott as an acute case of cramp caused his thumb to lock in one position at 5-2 down in the final set.
True, Schroder and Vink have beaten Alcott and Davidson before on such high profile stages as the Tokyo Paralympics and the US Open and they arrived at Melbourne Park as top seeds, but to beat reigning champions in their own backyard was something special.
“It feels really good to play better today and play a good match because out other two tournaments (the Victorian Open and the Melbourne Open before the Australian Open) were not the level we are used to playing at, so it was really good to play our own game now.”
World No.2 Schroder, who is potentially on course to meet Alcott in Thursday’s quad singles final, was equally delighted with the win, which sets up a title contest against reigning Roland Garros and Wimbledon champions Andy Lapthorne and David Wagner.
“I’m really happy with the win today,” said Schroder. “We played them two weeks ago in the final of the Victorian Open and we lost, so we were poised to try and win again today and we played great tennis. In the first set we only made something like three unforced errors.”
By contrast, Lapthorne was less than pleased by his own performance as he and Wagner scraped home against Donald Ramphadi and Koji Sugeno 6-3 4-6 (10-6) in a contest that gave South African wild card Ramphadi his first win at a Grand Slam.
The men’s doubles decider is set to be a rematch of three previous Grand Slam finals as Alfie Hewett and Gordon Reid prepare to face Gustavo Fernandez and Shingo Kunieda, having lost out to the Brits at the 2019 and 2021 US Opens, as well as at Roland Garros in 2020.
Fernandez and Kunieda defeated Joachim Gerard and Stephane Houdet 6-3 6-2 in their semi-final, while Hewett and Reid prevailed 7-5 6-2 against Tom Egberink and Ben Weekes.
Hewett and Reid made an early exit at the 2019 Australian Open to the partnership of Stephane Houdet and Weekes, however there was no suggestion of a similar result this year, even though the British top seeds made a slow start.
"We made a few too many unforced errors in the first couple of games. It’s a little bit breezy and it was quite swirly on the courts, so (we were) just trying to keep the ball in play and be smart with our placement," said Hewett. "It was a lot better after the second game and then a couple of really crucial points in that second set were the difference between it being 5-2 or 3-all.”
It will be a first Australian Open doubles final for Fernandez and Kunieda, who have won 12 men’s singles titles between them at Melbourne Park.
The 2017 US Open was the only previous Grand Slam where Yui Kamiji and Lucy Shuker joined forces, their challenge ending in the semi-finals on that occasion. Therefore, this year’s Australian Open has resulted in a personal best after the second seeds overcame Jiske Griffioen and Zhenzhen Zhu 6-2 6-3.
Awaiting Kamiji and Shuker in the women’s doubles final are top seeds Diede de Groot and Aniek van Koot after the reigning champions quickly clawed back a 2-0 deficit at the start of the second set of their semi-final against Dana Mathewson and Kgothatso Montjane, who De Groot and Van Koot also beat in the 2021 Roland Garros and US Open semi-finals.