Joachim Gerard became Belgium’s first wheelchair tennis Grand Slam champion at the 2021 Australian Open.
Gerard avenged his 2020 Roland Garros final defeat to Alfie Hewett with a 6-0 4-6 6-4 victory in Melbourne, a scoreline that tells only half the story of a contest that began with a 10-game surge and ended on a seventh match point, sparking an outpouring of raw emotions from the champion. Read more about Gerard's triumph below.
The 2021 Australian Wheelchair Open featured an expanded quad division field of eight players for the first time, meaning that a total of 24 players contested the men's, women's and quad events at the first Grand Slam of the year.