Oda Opens New Chapter in Wheelchair Tennis, Winning First Paralympic Gold

By Kazunori Hirachi / Yomiuri Shimbun Correspondent

17:01 JST, September 8, 2024

PARIS — Japan’s Tokito Oda won his first Paralympic gold medal in men’s wheelchair tennis when he defeated British Alfie Hewett, the silver medalist at Rio de Janeiro, 6-2, 4-6, 7-5 in the final on Saturday.

The 18-year-old Oda shone at the center court of the nearly at-capacity Roland Garros, a Grand Slam venue, as if opening a new chapter in the world of wheelchair tennis.

“I want to become a player whose game people want to watch,” is what Oda has been repeating. To live up to it, Oda played close to the net and hit back in strong strokes.

Oda defeated Hewett at the French Open final last year, making Oda the youngest champion of a Grand Slam.

During the first set of the Paralympic final, Oda allowed Hewett to reach break point twice but managed to keep the game to gain momentum, which he used to win the set. Oda lost the second set but took the third to win the final.

Shingo Kunieda — a wheelchair tennis legend with three Paralympic gold medals in singles — inspired Oda to take up the sport. Gustavo Fernandez, Kunieda’s doubles partner, described Oda as playing at a higher level than Kunieda or himself in both speed and power. Fernandez, an Argentinian, won bronze for the singles event at the Games.

His name, Tokito, comprises two kanji characters, and one of them — meaning triumph or cry of victory — is one of the three used in the Japanese translation for Arc de Triomphe. Inspired by the Paris landmark, his parents named him Tokito so he would grow up to roar victoriously.

With the top medal at the Paris Games, it seems Oda has lived up to the name.

“I’m so cool. I was born to win the gold medal,” Oda said.

To achieve a career Golden Slam — winning the Paralympics as well as each of the four Grand Slam tournaments — Oda only needs to win the U.S. Open. He is only just getting started.