Day 3 wrap: Alcott and Davidson going Dutch for doubles title defence
Reigning Paralympic quad wheelchair doubles champions Dylan Alcott and Heath Davidson will defend their crown in Wednesday’s gold medal match after fending off a second-set rally from Mitsuteru Moroishi and Koji Sugeno to prevail 6-2 6-4.
The top-seeded Australians will face Dutch No.2 seeds Sam Schroder and Niels Vink, the Paralympic debutants guaranteeing themselves a medal by downing Britons Antony Cotterill and Andy Lapthorne with a dominant 6-0 6-2 performance under the floodlights at Ariake Tennis Park.
“We’re into a gold medal game, so we’re stoked,” said Alcott, before crediting the Japanese duo for jangling some green and gold nerves towards the end. “We got a bit tight in the second, but they played awesome. I guess we were lucky there wasn’t a home crowd there for a bit, because they were rallying in that second set, and it was pretty dangerous.
“But awesome to get to a gold medal match with one of your best mates – it’s incredible.”
Davidson praised Alcott for taking the initiative to see them to victory as he struggled to find his range in the second set.
“He’s got big shoulders, so threw me on his back and carried me for half of it,” said the 34-year-old. “But we came good in the end, that’s the main thing. Just really, really fortunate and grateful that we get a chance to play on Wednesday.”
There were no signs of nerves from 21-year-old Schroder and Vink, the youngest player in Tokyo at 18, who described the feeling of securing at least a silver at their first Paralympics as “unbelievable” and “amazing” respectively.
“It’s crazy that it’s happened already at this young age for both of us – our first Paralympics, and to already have at least a silver medal is amazing, but of course we’re going for gold,” Schroder said, before turning his attention to the defending champions.
“It’s going to be a great match, a tough match for all of us. We’ve played them a few times, and I think we are 2-2 right now. We won the last time, so after this match we can go into that with a lot of confidence, and if we play the way we did today I think we’ll get a good result.”
Lapthorne and Cotterill will face Sugeno and Moroishi for bronze on Wednesday.
Cooler conditions allowed some matches to be played with the roof open on Sunday, though it was closed following Yui Kamiji and Momoko Ohtani’s 6-0 6-0 victory over China’s Huang Huimin and Huang Jinlian in the women’s doubles quarter-finals. Two-time bronze medallists Lucy Shuker and Jordanne Whiley were unperturbed, dispatching South African duo Kgothatso Montjane and Mariska Venter 6-2 6-0.
Kamiji and Ohtani will face top seeds Diede De Groot and Aniek van Koot in the semi-finals after the Dutch duo eased past RPC’s Liudmila Bubnova and Viktoriia Lvova 6-2 6-1, but Japanese No. 4 seeds Saki Takamuro and Manami Tanaka were ousted by Chinese pair Wang Ziying and Zhu Zhenzhen 6-2 6-1.
The first seed fell to Chinese opposition in the men’s singles draw as well, Netherlands’ No. 14 seed Maikel Scheffers stunned by Ji Zhenxu 6-4 6-4. Jef Vandorpe, the No. 15 seed fought from a set down to recover against Ben Weekes to reach the third round with a 3-6 6-1 6-0 victory before returning to partner Joachim Gerard in doubles, the Belgians posting a 6-3 6-1 win over Brazil’s Gustavo Carneiro Silva and Daniel Rodrigues to advance to the quarter-finals.
Top seeds Alfie Hewett and Gordon Reid laid down a marker with a 6-0 6-0 victory over Austria’s Thomas Flax and Nico Langmann, while reigning Paralympic champions Stephane Houdet and Nicolas Peifer beat Korean duo Im Ho Won and Oh Sang-Ho 6-1 6-1. Japanese duo Shingo Kunieda and Takashi Sanada, the No. 3 seeds, eased past French duo Frederic Cattaneo and Gaeten Menguy by the same scoreline, but Argentinian No. 4 seeds Gustavo Fernandez and Agustin Ledesma found themselves in a dogfight with Daisuke Arai and Takuya Miki before prevailing 6-2 2-6 6-3.