Tokito Oda inspires in the wheelchair men’s final tennisnet.com

The men’s singles final in the wheelchair competition of the French Open 2023 was an absolute highlight. The quality the Alfie Hewett and especially Tokito Oda brought to the pitch was impressive.

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It was an incredible performance that the only 17-year-old Japanese Tokito Oda showed in the final of the 2023 French Open. In the wheelchair men’s singles final, the young man from Aichi Prefecture defeated British world number one Alfie Hewett 6:1 and 6:4 and also wrote tennis history with his first major success in his career. With his triumph, Oda is also the youngest Grand Slam champion in wheelchair tennis of all time.

Not only the fact that the Asian teenager was able to take revenge on the eight-year-old opponent from East England for the final defeat at this year’s Australian Open, but above all the way in which he did this caused the large audience and the Open-mouthed fans in front of the TV sets. Crisp forehand winners, rhythm changes and self-confident attacking tennis sometimes made it forgotten that Novak Djokovic or Stefanos Tsitsipas were not at work here.

Oda has only been a professional for a little over a year

Oda, who is currently second in the world rankings, has unchallengedly taken over the scepter from wheelchair tennis legend Shingo Kunieda with his performances in recent months. Wheelchair tennis is very popular in Japan. A trend from which European tennis fans can still learn a lesson, because the quality of the encounters – especially in the major tournaments – is in no way inferior to that of the pros for men and women.

At the age of nine, Oda was diagnosed with bone cancer in his left hip. The tumor could be removed, but since then the competitor from the land of the rising sun has been confined to a wheelchair. He started wheelchair tennis training at the age of ten and has only been registered as a professional with the ITF for a little over a year.

It was nothing for Hewett with the eighth Grand Slam success, the fourth in Roland Garros. Advertising for wheelchair tennis showed both protagonists on Saturday. Unfortunately, there are no freely available highlight videos of the encounter yet. As soon as any become available, we will place them here.

The clearly more one-sided women’s final in the wheelchair competition went to the Dutchwoman Diede De Groot, who gave the Japanese Yui Kamiji no chance with 6:2, 6:0.

Here is the men’s tableau of the wheelchair competition.

Here is the women’s singles tableau of the wheelchair competition.