At U.S. Open, scene at wheelchair competitions a sign of 20 years of growth

The Athletic has live coverage of the U.S. Open men’s final featuring Jannik Sinner vs. Carlos Alcaraz

FLUSHING MEADOWS, N.Y. — Hours before the women’s singles final at the U.S. Open on Saturday, Tokito Oda was chasing his own history.

Oda, 19, of Japan, was pursuing a career Golden Slam, a rare feat achieved by winning all four Grand Slam majors and a Paralympic gold medal.

His opponent in the U.S. Open men’s wheelchair singles final was Gustavo Fernandez, a 31-year-old from Argentina who had just paired up with Oda to win the tournament’s men’s wheelchair doubles title on Friday. They were back on the same court 24 hours later, squaring off for another championship in a scene that showed just how far the sport has come in its 20 years at the U.S. Open.

Each athlete had passionate supporters. For Oda, a group of fans clapped and cheered while wearing purple T-shirts bearing the name of a Japanese automotive company that sponsors him. Fernandez was similarly well represented by fans wearing Argentina’s colors, sky blue and white, who waved flags and chanted “Vamos!” and “Olé! Olé! Olé!” whenever he hit an extraordinary shot.

As Fernandez and Oda competed on Court 11, one of the outside courts at Billie Jean King Tennis Center, the wheelchair women’s singles final between Yui Kamiji of Japan and Li Xiaohui of China was being played just a few feet away on Court 10.

Their dual stages, near the complex’s main food court and a giant plaza, were separated by a narrow walkway jammed with spectators. Two large grandstands sandwiched the courts and were filled with fans, some of whom had tickets to see Aryna Sabalenka later beat Amanda Anisimova for the women’s singles championship.

The crowd was a sign of the growth of attention toward wheelchair tennis over the past few decades, with its top championships now held in the same tennis meccas for the same fans who might be otherwise drawn to watch Sabalenka, Anisimova or the other big stars of tennis compete for the biggest prizes the sport has to offer.

“It’s grown massively worldwide, not just in certain countries,” said Alfie Hewett, the four-time U.S. Open men’s wheelchair singles champion. “There’s so many more players playing at the slams.”

The atmosphere has followed suit, as was clear when the wheelchair singles championships reached their climax. Kamiji rallied from getting bageled in her first set to winning the last two sets for her 33rd major. Moments later, Oda saved four championship points in a 10-point tiebreaker in the third set to eventually best Fernandez, becoming the youngest male wheelchair athlete to achieve the career Golden Slam.

The rivalries that have always been present have become an anchor for the growth of the wheelchair divisions. Oda and Hewett have emerged as the top current rivals, with a dynamic similar to the jockeying seen on the ATP and WTA tours, where younger stars such as Carlos Alcaraz and Coco Gauff demand their due against competitors who may be older but are still very much in their prime.

“There’s times I wish he was not a wheelchair tennis player,” Hewett said. “Maybe I would have had a few more slams under my belt.”

Hewett and Oda have combined to take the last 11 Grand Slam men’s wheelchair singles titles. Oda beat Hewett for Paralympic gold at the Paris Games, then beat him again at Wimbledon this year in three sets in front of a nearly full crowd on No. 1 Court.

“He makes me stronger,” Oda said. “I hope I make him stronger.”

Kamiji built up her reputation in the sport significantly through her 11-year rivalry with Diede de Groot, 28, of the Netherlands.

They played 64 times before this U.S. Open, with de Groot winning 48 times. Yet Kamiji bucked that lopsided record at the Paralympics in Paris and again at this tournament, where she beat de Groot in a three-set match that lasted more than two hours in the first round.

“Until I beat her, I couldn’t finish my career,” Kamiji said of her Paralympic gold. “My dream had come true.”

Elements of these rivalries have been present even before the tournaments were this polished. Brad Parks, a former U.S. freestyle skier who began using a wheelchair after a skiing accident and attended Saturday’s women’s singles final, is credited with cofounding the sport and launching its first tournaments in 1980. Its first presence at a Grand Slam tournament was in 2002 at the Australian Open, where a side event called the Classic 8s was folded into the tennis major itself.

Esther Vergeer of the Netherlands won that first women’s wheelchair Grand Slam tournament and recalls discomfort when she wheeled onto Court 17 at Melbourne Park for the first time. Not many people knew what wheelchair tennis was, even though it had been included in the Paralympic program since 1992.

“Many were flabbergasted by the level,” said Vergeer, who went on to build up a Hall of Fame career with 43 major titles (21 singles, 22 doubles) and seven Paralympic golds.

David Hall, who won three early men’s wheelchair titles at the Australian Open, said fans were not clear that they were watching on the same courts where players who did not use wheelchairs also competed.

“Whoever came to stop to have a look and check out this wheelchair tennis, people didn’t seem to leave,” Hall said.

Still, Vergeer and Hall said they saw more potential for wheelchair tennis. Hall said the 2000 Paralympics in Sydney injected excitement into the sport. They believed similar stagings at Grand Slam tournaments could help wheelchair tennis grow.

Wimbledon and the U.S. Open added wheelchair divisions in 2005. The French Open followed suit in 2007.

Vergeer said the sport saw a big boost at the Paralympics in 2008 and 2012, when 112 players competed in wheelchair divisions, compared with 72 at the 2000 Games. The bigger fields brought more attention, she said, and helped the slams and the ITF Wheelchair Tennis Tour, which started in 1992.

“Every year you have four moments of exposure and moments to talk about championships or winning a tournament,” Vergeer said. “For me, as an athlete, that worked really well: a moment in January, in July and in September, in combination with the Paralympic Games. That was just internationally something that people talked about.”

De Groot idolized Vergeer. And Kamiji and Oda each turned to Shingo Kunieda, a 28-time men’s wheelchair singles champion, for mentorship. The result of similar experiences for more players has been greater depth in larger fields, leading to more competitive tournaments. At the U. S. Open, there were 16 players each in the men’s and women’s wheelchair singles draws this year. There are also more divisions: 10 for wheelchair players, including tournaments for doubles, juniors and quads.

The prize money has increased, too, although players say more support for wheelchair tennis would make it easier for prospective athletes who cannot fund significant costs for equipment, training and fees.

When Kunieda won his first wheelchair U.S. Open in 2007, he received $6,000. The top prize for Oda and Kamiji on Saturday for their singles titles was $90,000 each. The total prize pool for all wheelchair divisions was $1.6 million.

Andy Lapthorne, a 17-time singles and doubles slam champion, believes the wheelchair tour needs to be more sustainable. The costs pile up quickly, with entry fees, travel, coaching fees and other expenses. His wheelchair, he said, cost £9,000, more than $12,000.

The organizers of the majors provide grants to reduce costs for wheelchair athletes throughout the year and do not charge entry fees for their tournaments. But Lapthorne said he would like to see more help for athletes from players outside the United States, the United Kingdom, France and Australia.

He said the slams and sponsors should help more “so that not just players from countries that have good funding and programs and not just people from rich backgrounds end up playing the sport.”

De Groot said playing in front of fuller stadium courts should help. She recalled one U.S. Open appearance when she competed at a basically empty Louis Armstrong Stadium.

“Not so much fun,” she said.

One avenue for more popularity is collaboration and marketing with stars like Sinner and Gauff. Lapthorne hit with Novak Djokovic on the practice courts before Djokovic won the 2015 men’s singles final here in New York. And at the Miami Open last year, Hewett and Sinner did an event where Hewett demonstrated to Sinner, the world No. 1 in men’s singles, how to hit while sitting in a wheelchair.

“It shows how difficult this is, and it’s amazing what they can do with their bodies,” said Sinner, who is facing Alcaraz in the U.S. Open men’s singles final Sunday.

When Oda finally won his singles championship on Saturday, he dropped his racket and wheeled in a circle around the baseline, pumping a fist to the sky. He put his face in his hands, overwhelmed with emotion. He wheeled to the net and shared a long embrace with Fernandez, who said it would take some time to get over his “tough” loss.

Oda called it “the best win of his career.” He hugged his coach, Mitsuteru Moroishi, before Hall, one of his predecessors in the sport, presented him with the trophy.

Oda lifted the silver bowl with pride, tears still on his face as the fans cheered, having stuck around to watch the celebration.

(Top photo of Tokito Oda: Clive Brunskill / Getty Images)

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