Australia’s Heath Davidson will make his Wimbledon debut today in what is guaranteed to be a tasty head to head with Britain’s Andy Lapthorne
©Heath Davidson Instagram
Already a four-time Australian Open doubles champion, it’s hard to believe that we haven’t yet seen Heath Davidson compete at SW19.
Most recently he was the only Australian player to bring home any silverware from the 2022 edition of Roland Garros across any format when he finished runner-up in the quad doubles with Ymanitu Silva, with whom he will again be partnering up with here in Wimbledon.
And whilst it might be his first competitive outing here on the green stuff in London he’s more than ready to entertain the crowds with his brand of tennis..
“I’m definitely going to be the latest Aussie to try and cause a bit of of trouble for people out here on the grass,” he told Two Bounce Tennis.
“I love it, it’s my favourite surface and I feel like my game really suits it. So hopefully I can get out there and put on a show.”
And it feels right for Davidson. to making his debut in this of all years.
Having initially hung up his racket in the early 2010s after ten years in the sport, it was watching a fellow Aussie in the main draw that convinced him to get back on court and return to the wheelchair tennis tour – that Aussie was Nick Kyrgios.
“Nick’s actually partly the reason why I came back to wheelchair tennis. I watched him beat Rafa back in 2014 which gave me a little bit of ‘oh that’s cool!’
“So it’s pretty funny that the start of my first Wimbledon is also him back in the quarters again so that’s cool.”
Drawing Andy Lapthorne in his singles opener isn’t going to be easy though, and Davidson who is also good friends with his opponent off court, doesn’t underestimate the quarter-final head to head which lays in front of him.
“Lappo is probably going to try and break the world record for drop shots – he does love a drop shot,” he said. “So my plan will be to serve and move forward and we’ll see how we go.
“With it being his home Slam as well I’m assuming he’s going to have like 50 mates in the crowd who will get stuck into me so I might have to throw a water bottle or something,” he continued jokingly.
” Nah, we’ve always had some great head to heads whatever surface we’re on so hopefully we can show that quad tennis is just as exciting as men’s and women’s open wheelchair tennis.”
As the current World No.5 Davidson has qualified for the Championships automatically thanks to the All England Lawn Tennis Club extending the quads draw so that it was equal with the men’s and women’s open division when it came to competitors, and he believes this is a “massive move” and one that it is perfectly capable to be replicated at all Slams.
“A bit of equality across the draw sizes is awesome,” he said. “Big thanks to one of your boys, Lappo [Andy Lapthorne] whose really pushed it hard to get to this point. And now myself, Lappo and a few of the other guys are going to be pushing for the US Open to follow suit cause they upped the men’s and women’s draw to 16 and left us at eight so that was a bit disappointing.
“But we’ll get there, we’re moving forward and it shows as Wimbledon have gone above and beyond with prize money this year as well. So it’s starting to look good for wheelchair tennis.”
