Tokito Oda’s star continues to ascend after the Japanese teenager outplayed world No.1 Alfie Hewett in the AO 2024 men’s wheelchair singles final.
A year on from winning just four games against Hewett in the 2023 final, Oda overpowered the Briton 6-2 6-4 at Kia Arena on Saturday afternoon.
MORE: Australian Open men’s wheelchair singles draw
It means Oda now holds three of the four major singles titles, after triumphs at Roland-Garros and Wimbledon last year.
“I didn't change my play style and anything, but I just grew up to the next level,” he explained of his progress.”
“But it's been one year I play and I practise aggressive play, and practising the one thing, focus one thing to play aggressive and then go to the net, hit the smash, hit strong forehand.
“So that makes me to get this trophy… I think that was difference between last year and this year.”
It was hard to predict the outcome ahead of the final, for their head-to-head record was finely poised.
Hewett, already an eight-time major champion in singles, led the overall series 6-4 and a day earlier had, alongside Gordon Reid, beaten Oda and Takuya Miki to win the AO 2024 men’s wheelchair doubles title.
Yet Oda led their Grand Slam series 2-1 – all matches coming in finals – and a week earlier had overcome the Brit to win the Melbourne Wheelchair Open.
And it was the same story on Saturday, with Oda powering to victory in just over 90 minutes.
“You produced some of the best stuff I’ve seen you play,” Hewett said to Oda during the trophy ceremony. “I really hope you enjoy this moment.”
In a clean performance, Oda produced 29 winners – six more than Hewitt – against just 17 unforced errors.
His dynamic style and on-court intensity was especially evident in the second set; he slotted an ace for a 3-1 lead, powered a swinging volley winner in the next game, then cranked his fastest serve of the match (174km/h) to escape with a hold for 4-2.
“My feeling is I'm not playing wheelchair tennis. I just playing tennis,” Oda said of his approach to playing.
“I really love to see the standing tennis, like the many great players is here Australia. (Novak) Djokovic has lost, but I love his playing, and Carlos (Alcaraz).
“Everyone who has first dynamic play, I love to see those guys. So when I see them, I want to be like them, and I want to play like those guys. But I'm sitting in chair, but doesn't matter for me if I'm sitting chair or not, I'm standing or not. So I just playing tennis on the chair.”
Oda could not convert his first opportunity to close out the match at 5-2 and watched as Hewett staged a revival to tighten scores to 4-5.
But at his second opportunity, he found more big serves and closed out a straight-sets triumph.
It completed a remarkable day for Japanese tennis, after Rei Sakamoto, also aged 17, won the boys’ singles title.
“That's special, because I was getting warm-up at the gym. I saw (he was playing) … really I got power from him, definitely, but when they called me and Alfie, he just won the match,” Oda revealed.
“So I feel like, ‘Oh, I need to win this match, because same Japanese won the juniors title’ (smiling). So my feeling is so excited before the match
“Actually, we born same city and we met at these tournaments from last year, so it's really special to having the two titles with him, so the same age, same racquets, same city.
“I'm really happy to get title with him.”