Lucas Sithole won the wheelchair tennis quad doubles title at the Australian Open tennis tournament on 28 January in Melbourne.
The Westdene resident and partner David Wagner turned back the clock to serve past second seeds Andy Lapthorne (GBR) and Dylan Alcott (AUS) 6–1; 6–3 in a one-hour battle at Melbourne Park.
This is Sithole’s first Grand Slam doubles’ title.
Sithole said, “I enjoyed the match and it was great to play with David Wagner.”
He added that this was their first match together and it was easy to play with him.
“I am extremely excited for taking the doubles’ title and again winning against Andy Lapthorne,” said the excited Sithole.
After losing to Wagner in his opener on 27 January, Sithole who is the South African world number three survived a three-setter test against Britain’s Andy Lapthorne in the quads’ singles, edging out the Brit 2–6; 6–1; 6–0 to keep his dream of securing a singles’ title alive .
The country’s top women’s player Kgothatso Montjane, also from Westdene, put up a fight on 27 January against Aniek van Koot of the Netherlands in the women’s singles, but the Dutch player snatched a 7–6; 7–5 win to knock out the world number eight.
Montjane suffered another loss on 28 January after she joined forces with German partner Sabine Ellerbrock and went down 6–4; 7–5 against second seeds Marjolein Buis and Yui Kamiji in the first round of the women’s doubles’ competition.
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