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Competitiveness cultivated from a lifelong friendship will drive Heath Davidson when the wheelchair tennis quad singles begins at Tokyo 2020 on Saturday.
Davidson, 34, and Australian team-mate Dylan Alcott, 30, will defend the gold medal they won in 2016 in the quad doubles but – as was the case in Rio – both will also play singles in Tokyo.
The two Victorians have been mates since they were teenagers, but the niceties are left aside when they face each other on court.
World No.1 Alcott is on the cusp of a defining achievement, having won the quad singles titles at three majors so far in 2021 – the Australian and French Opens, along with Wimbledon.
Victory in Tokyo would give Alcott the opportunity to win the coveted ‘golden slam’ with the US Open to follow straight after the Paralympics.
But world No.7 Davidson has other plans.
“If I could be the one person that knocks off his golden slam opportunity it would make my year,” he joked.
“Dylan has been one of my best mates for 20 years now. We grew up together, it’s really cool having my best mate out on court with me.”
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Due to a nuance of Paralympic tennis rules, the only way the two Australians can meet in the singles is in a medal match, as competitors from the same country are placed on opposite sides of the 16-player draw.
Alcott has been dominant over Davidson in recent meetings, winning in straight sets in their past eight encounters at Tour level.
As a doubles combination, they will begin their quest to defend their Rio gold medal on Friday, having been afforded a first round bye as top seeds.
The pair will feel comfortable in Tokyo conditions, having won the past four Australian Open quad championships, where the court surface and hot weather are similar.
“In the doubles we do have a little bit of pressure but that’s the pressure we put on ourselves, not what everyone else expects us to do,” Davidson said.
“The humidity is pretty brutal here and, obviously being quads, we don’t sweat properly so it does affect us a little bit more.
“In Melbourne it’s been like five, six degrees in the morning and we’re getting up and it’s like hitting bricks around. These courts are reacting very much like the Melbourne courts in January, when it’s really hot at home.
“We just go out there and have fun and I think that’s why we have been so successful as a doubles team.”
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It’s Davidson’s second Paralympics and the fourth for Alcott – his second as a tennis representative – after claiming a gold medal in wheelchair basketball as a teenage debutant in Beijing and silver with the Rollers four years later in London.
Australia will also be represented in wheelchair tennis by open class players Ben Weekes and Martyn Dunn, who are at the opposite ends of the experience spectrum.
Weekes, the world No.33, is at his fifth Paralympics while Dunn, currently ranked No.87, is on debut in Tokyo.
The draw will be conducted on Wednesday before play begins at Ariake Tennis Park at 11am local time (12pm AEST) on Friday.
Watch the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games live and free on Seven and 7plus from August 24 – September 5.
By: Paralympics Australia
Posted: 24 August 2021
