Dylan Alcott and Diede de Groot complete Golden Slams with victories at the US Open 2021
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Dylan Alcott and Diede de Groot
The US Open 2021 will be one of the most memorable Grand Slams of recent times for the different stories it helped create. Right from the success of Britain’s qualifier Emma Raducanu winning the Women’s Singles becoming the first ever to do so, it also saw two athletes complete the coveted Golden Slams this year.
Gold Medallists at the 2020 Tokyo Paralympics, Australia’s Dylan Alcott and Netherlands’ Diede de Groot completed the Golden Slam with victories in Men’s Quad Singles and Women’s wheelchair in the finals of the US Open 2021 in their respective disciplines.
Dylan Alcott
Dylan started the season with a title on his homeland at the 2021 Australian Open, his 7th straight title and his 6th title defence at the Melbourne Park. Dylan won his first Australian Open title in 2015 and has not let go of his crown since then. He then completed a hattrick of titles at the 2021 French Open, having won the 2019 and the 2020 editions as well.
He then defended his 2019 Wimbledon title successfully winning the title again at the All-England Club. Dylan then went on to win his 2nd Paralympics Gold, his first in the Singles discipline. Coming to New York, he had the Golden Slam on his mind after having failed to achieve the feat back in 2019 when he won all 3 Grand Slams except for the US Open as he lost in the finals.
But this time, however, he was successful and became the first man, the first wheelchair player to achieve this historic feat and just the 3rd professional tennis player to have a Golden Slam to his name. Dylan also has a Calendar Slam in Men’s Doubles achieved in 2019.
Diede de Groot
Diede de Groot, the 24-year old World No. 1 in both the Women’s Singles and Women’s Doubles became the first woman to achieve the Golden Slam in wheelchair tennis and the 2nd woman in history of tennis after Steffi Graf to achieve the feat. Diede started the season by winning her 3rd Australian Open title in 4 years and then won her 2nd French Open title after having won the first in 2019.
After having won the Wimbledon in 2017 and 2018, Diede won the Grand Slam for the 3rd time in her career, making it 3 out of 3 Slams for the season putting her on the contendency for the Calendar Slam and after her Gold medal victory at the 2020 Tokyo Paralympics, she was on course for the Golden Slam.
Over the past 3 editions of the US Open, Groot has stamped her authority on the Grand Slam and proved it yet again as she won her 4th consecutive title in New York as she completed a historic Golden Slam by winning the US Open 2021.
Novak Djokovic was also aiming for a Calendar Slam but unfortunately lost in the finals to Russia’s Daniil Medvedev in the finals of the Men’s Singles.
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Sarthak Shitole
(3462 Articles Published)