Japan’s Tokito Oda completes Golden Slam with US Open wheelchair title
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Tokito Oda of Japan celebrating after beating Gustavo Fernandez of Argentina in the US Open men’s wheelchair final.
PHOTO: AFP
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NEW YORK – Japan’s 19-year-old top seed Tokito Oda defeated Argentina’s Gustavo Fernandez 6-2, 3-6, 7-6 (13-11) in the US Open men’s wheelchair final on Sept 6, becoming the youngest player to complete a career Golden Slam comprising all four Majors and the Paralympic Games.
Compatriot Yui Kamiji also played her part in securing a Japanese sweep of the wheelchair singles crowns at Flushing Meadows, coming from a set down to beat China’s Li Xiaohui 0-6, 6-1, 6-3 in the women’s final for her 11th Grand Slam singles title.
With his victory over doubles partner Fernandez, Oda became the first player to achieve the wheelchair singles Golden Slam since compatriot Shingo Kunieda.
The reigning Paralympic champion saved four match points in the final-set tiebreak against Fernandez to claim his third straight Grand Slam championship following his victories at the French Open and Wimbledon.
“I was surprised by today’s win, but you know, this result is what I imagined every day after Wimbledon,” said Oda, who teamed with Fernandez to win the men’s doubles title barely 24 hours earlier.
“I was imagining this trophy and to win here and how to celebrate on the court. But (the) match was maybe (the) craziest match of my career. Even bigger than the Paralympic Games.”
It was Oda’s seventh Grand Slam singles title. He claimed the French Open and Wimbledon crowns earlier in 2025 after taking gold at the 2024 Paralympic Games in Paris.
His only loss at the Majors this season came against Britain’s Alfie Hewett in the Australian Open final.
Top seed Kamiji, 31, kept her composure after a first set dominated by Li to clinch her third US Open singles championship and first since 2017.
Also on Sept 6, Marcel Granollers and Horacio Zeballos saved three championship points against all-British pair Joe Salisbury and Neal Skupski to win their first US Open men’s doubles title.
Salisbury and Skupski were a point away from winning with their opponents serving down 5-4 down in the third set, but Granollers and Zeballos fought back to prevail 3-6, 7-6 (7-4), 7-5.
It is a second Grand Slam triumph for Spain’s Granollers and Argentina’s Zeballos. They also beat Salisbury and Skupski in three sets in the French Open final.
“When you play these kind of matches, it’s so unfair there’s a winner and a loser,” said Zeballos.
“I don’t really know how we... won those last points after what we did during the match. We kept fighting. I think if I had to describe the match with one phrase is ‘never give up’.”
Granollers had finished on the losing side in five Grand Slam doubles finals before 2025, three of those playing with Zeballos.
“Tennis sometimes is crazy, because we were talking coming here that how close you are to lose the match, and then in 20 minutes you win the trophy,” said Granollers. KYODO NEWS, AFP
