An inspired Sam Schroder has foiled Dylan Alcott's farewell dream of an eighth straight Australian Open quad wheelchair title on Rod Laver Arena on Thursday.
In a rematch of last year's final, the second-seeded Dutchman avenged that defeat to land his second major after his 2020 US Open triumph over Alcott.
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With outgoing Australian of the Year, Grace Tame, watching on among a vocal crowd, the incumbent awardee, Alcott, found the unrelenting onslaught in his last appearance too much as Schroder sealed the championship, 7-5 6-0.
"Congrats to Dylan on an amazing career. You've inspired so many people to get out there and play sports," Schroder said. "You've done a great job inspiring the world. I hope to one day be able to do just one small part of that as well. Thank you for all that you've done.
"It's always great being back here. I love the weather, I love you guys coming to watch here. It was a very special moment for me having so many people come to watch us and cheer us on."
In a sign of Alcott's reach across Australia, the host broadcaster delayed crossing to the 6:00pm news bulletin to stay with the final on Rod Laver Arena.
Alcott retires with 23 quad wheelchair Grand Slam trophies and the first man in history to win the Golden Slam in any form of tennis following his clean sweep in 2021.
Among his proudest achievements were the chance to use his platform as an advocate of Australians with a disability, establishing his own foundation in 2017 and organising an inclusive music festival, AbilityFest.
"Sam, mate, you deserved to win," Alcott said. "You were definitely the better player. You'll be winning many of these I reckon, you and your mate Niels. Mate, awesome job.
"To the Australian Open, I love you so much. Thanks so much to Jane, Craig and everybody for changing my life but also backing someone who's disabled to be the front of your brand.
"You've changed my life but judging by that award I got a couple of days ago maybe I've changed some other lives as well."
The top seed was not without his chances early on.
He broke to end a nine-deuce, 13-minute game to serve for the opening set only for the Dutchman to level and, after a gruelling 70 minutes, Schroder broke on his third set point with a crosscourt backhand winner.
A whirlwind trip to Canberra to accept his Australian of the Year award amid a physically and emotionally taxing week of farewells had come to a head for Alcott against a firing opponent.
Schroder landed the early break in the second set and despite all his efforts, Alcott was unable to stem the flow as his fast-finishing opponent prevailed after an hour and 40 minutes.
"All around the world, every single locker-room we go to, there's wheelchair tennis on," Alcott said. "The top 10 men and women, they all know now because it started on this court, right here, so I'm very thankful… I'm really the luckiest guy in the world. I didn't need to win today to realise that."
Earlier, in an all-Dutch women's wheelchair singles final, top seed Diede de Groot eased to a 6-1 6-1 victory over Aniek van Koot.
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"I feel really good, especially because last year was a very tough year with so many big tournaments, then the (Olympic) Games to sort of top it off," de Groot said.
"This year we sort of tried to go back to basics a little bit and tried to really put the focus on all of the Grand Slams, beginning the year with this one."
In the men's wheelchair singles final, Japanese top seed Shingo Kunieda withstood a mid-match resurgence from British second seed Alfie Hewett 7-5, 3-6 6-2.
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"This week I played no good tennis until this morning," Kunieda said. "I came in court, it was changed. I played really good, my best tennis in my career, especially final set, yeah. I cannot tell how I (did it)."