.DiedetheGreat and DylanAlcott made history at the USOpen by each completing the rare Golden Slam!
has completed a Golden Slam — a loss at the Olympics for Serbia's Novak Djokovic halted his calendar Golden Slam efforts. De Groot is the second woman across tennis to get a Golden Slam; Germany's Steffi Graf won all four Grand Slams and the Olympics in women's singles in 1988, and she stood alone in the Golden Slam record books until now.
During the trophy ceremony, de Groot, who has 12 major singles titles to her name after today, pointed out that she and Kamiji left thejust around a week ago for the US Open tournament, a transition which she noted tournament organizers made easy for them. She thanked her team, tournament sponsors, and viewers, then stated,"It's really important for us as wheelchair tennis players to get this kind of acknowledgement.
Alcott, whose Grand Slam quad singles titles now total 15, had similar sentiments during his acceptance speech."To all the sponsors, everybody that makes it happen, thank you for putting us on stadium courts, changing my life, changing Niels's life, but hopefully changing the lives of millions of people with disability around the world, that they can see themselves on the big stage doing what they love." He continued,"I used to hate myself so much. I hated my disability.
Ahead, you'll find photos and footage from de Groot and Alcott's golden, history-making performances at the 2021 US Open.