Oda completes Golden Slam at 19, as Kamiji, Vink add to US Open titles

Tokito Oda thinks he’s only ever saved three match points in his caree, such is his dominance wheelchair tennis player.

Three points, total.

On Saturda at the US Open, in a thrilling men’s singles final, Oda had to save four, all in the final set match tiebreak.

The 19-year-old No. 1 seed was pushed to the absolute limit by Argentina’s No. 4 seed, Gustavo Fernandez, but Oda managed to survive those match points and claim an historic win.

With the 6-2, 3-6, (13-11) triumph, Oda becamse the youngest player to complete the career Golden Slam, having now won each of the four Grand Slam titles, to go along with Paralympic gold medal at the Paris Plympics in 2024.

He is one four players to achieve the feat, joining the sport’s legends Shingo Kunieda, Diede de Groot and Dylan Alcott.

“Yeah, I am feeling just amazing, just happy,” Oda said.  “Yeah, I got no words.”

Oda made a remarkable recovery in the final set match tiebreak. After winning the first set fairly routinely against Fernandez, making his first appearance in the Open final since 2014, Oda saw his own level drop and his opponent’s rise.

Then in the tiebreak, Fernandez was very aggressive and very successful in building the lead, and when, after a long rally, an Oda forehand sailed long, Fernandez led 9-6.

But Oda showed he wasn’t giving up, snaring the next two points with a backhand serve return winner, and then a forehand winner.

On match point No. 3, a Fernandez backhand return went into the net, eliciting a roar of 'Come on!' from Oda and the large contingent of Japanese fans on Court 11.

“I didn't think, if I lose this point, I didn't think like that,” Oda said. “Just thought normal, and every point my mind is always same and always just hit the winner and just hit for the corner, yeah.

“So, you know, I feel a little bit of pressure in his match point, but yeah, that time I got two winner maybe down the line. Yeah, that was the best moment.”

On the fourth championship point, Fernandez sailed a return wide. Finally on Oda’s second match point, he crushed a forehand return down the line for a winner, and finally, the Golden Slam was his.

“I was imagining this trophy and to win here and how to celebrate on the court, yeah,” Oda said. “But (that) match was maybe craziest match of my career.”

On the women’s side, Yui Kamiji had about as poor a start as possible in her final against Chinese Li Xiaohui, dropping the first set, 6-0 in 20 minutes.

That almost never happens to Kamiji, but she was overpowered initially by Li before rallying for a 0-6, 6-1, 6-3 win, her first singles championship here in Flushing Meadows since 2017.

It completes a fantastic season at the Slams for the 31-year-old Kamiji, who adds the US Open title to her Australian Open and Roland Garros crowns (she lost in the final of Wimbledon).

“Well, I wasn't expecting (that), of course, but she played well, very powerful and good serve,” Kamiji said of the opening set bagel. I wasn't really bad in the first set. I tried to stay a little bit back and hit my first opportunity to take advantage (in the second set).”

Kamiji, who said she had a new wheelchair at this US Open, was able to finally get on the scoreboard by breaking Li’s serve to start the second set, and from there it was the dominating performance she and her fans are used to.

As expected, the most difficult match of the tournament for Kamiji was, unusually, in the quarterfinals, when the legendary Diede de Groot, still coming back to top form after missing eight months following hip surgery, pushed Kamiji before losing, 3-6 6-4 6-4.

“When I beat Diede, I was thinking, like, ‘oh, my God, it's still quarterfinal,’” Kamiji said. “Every round it was really difficult to win against every player. At the same time I'm really happy that we bring wheelchair tennis level that high.”

In the quad singles final, two friends who seem to always meet in Grand Slam Finals, Niels Vink and Sam Schroder, both of the Netherlands, squared off.

This time it was Vink who emerged a 6-1 7-5 victory, claiming his second straight Slam title and first US Open singles crown since 2025.

“We always say against each other in the locker room, ‘Let's get everyone and then play the final against each other,” Vink said, laughing. "Against him, my strategy is always the same, because, yeah, we don't have any secrets for each other because we know each other so good.”

Vink, who won two of the three Slam finals meetings over Schroder in 2025, had a much tougher battle in the second set. Schroder broke serve and surged to a 4-2 lead before Vink recovered to even the set at 5.

Vink then won the final when a Schroder forehand sailed long.

“It feels completely different, because three years ago, yeah, I don't remember it that good, because it's already three years ago. I was 19 at the moment, and now I'm 22,” Vink said when asked to compare his two titles here.

“As a player, I develop, but also as a person. This one, yeah, this one was, what I remember, a better match. It was a good fight, and the level of the match was very, very high also from Sam.”