Alcott took the title at the Albany Tennis Centre with three straight-set wins over home players James McLeod, Richard Page and Chris Harvey and will head to the Olympic Park in Sydney in confident mood for the tournament which runs from today until Monday (January 14).

The 23-year-old is no stranger to success on the international stage and he achieved the ultimate goal of becoming Paralympic champion at Beijing 2008 when he was part of the Australian wheelchair basketball side that claimed gold and followed that up with a silver medal at London 2012.

But Alcott has always had ambitions of making a mark on the wheelchair tennis scene and his victory in New Zealand has earned him a wildcard spot for the upcoming Australian Open in his home city of Melbourne, which gets underway on January 22.

"Back when I was playing tennis as a kid, all I wanted to do was play in the Australian Open," Alcott told paralympic.org.au.

"It's going to be so cool, especially playing in my home town of Melbourne.

"I'm actually getting a bit nervous with all my friends and family coming down but I cannot wait.

"I've already had a taste of what it will be like playing in Brisbane and now Sydney because the wheelchair competition runs alongside the able-bodied, so it's really cool to be able to sit down and have lunch and bump into guys like Roger Federer."

Alcott has not competed in wheelchair basketball since London 2012 and is determined to make a mark in tennis, having already represented Australia in the sport at four World Team Cups and was ranked fourth in the world junior standings before switching to basketball.

Alcott began his sporting career on the tennis court and reached number four in the wheelchair tennis junior rankings ©Getty Images