Alfie Hewett Denies Tokito Oda Grand Slam Sweep

Alfie Hewett arrived in New York carrying scars. Two brutal defeats to Tokito Oda this season, including a 6-1 6-1 humbling on the lawns of Wimbledon, had left the Briton questioning himself, his game, even his identity on court.

On Sunday, he answered all of it.

Hewett produced a ferocious, defiant performance to overwhelm the Japanese world number one 6-0 7-6 (7-5) and claim a fifth US Open men’s wheelchair singles title, tearing away Oda’s chance of completing a calendar-year Grand Slam in 2026.

It was more than a final. It felt like a reckoning.

From “shell of myself” to possessed

The numbers alone are stark. Oda had won the past six Grand Slam singles titles. He had beaten Hewett in the French Open and Wimbledon finals this year, barely giving him a foothold. At SW19, Hewett managed just two games.

That loss cut deep. He admitted he had “looked in the mirror” afterwards, confronting how far he had drifted from the player who built a career on nerve and aggression when the pressure closed in. He spoke of being quiet, timid, “a shell” of himself on Centre Court. Six weeks of stewing followed. Six weeks of wanting to feel like Alfie Hewett again.

New York got that version in full.

After saving a break point in the opening game, Hewett flipped a switch. He described the first set as “possessed” and it showed: he hunted returns, hammered his groundstrokes and suffocated Oda with depth and pace. The top seed, usually so composed and precise, barely had time to think as Hewett raced through the opener 6-0, sealing it with a blistering backhand return winner that underlined the shift in their dynamic.

This was not the hesitant figure from Wimbledon. This was the player who has built a reputation on being fearless, brave and courageous when the moment demands it – the traits he felt had deserted him on grass. In New York, they were back.

Oda pushed to the brink

The second set told a different story. Oda, chasing history and stung by the one-sided opener, finally found some rhythm. His serve tightened, his forehand began to bite, and for the first time in the match he dragged Hewett into defensive corners.

The response from the Briton? Dig in. Then dig deeper.

Hewett fell into a double-break hole as Oda raised his level, and suddenly the match resembled the season’s earlier encounters: the Japanese player dictating, Hewett scrambling. Oda earned three set points, the door wide open to reset the contest and push it into a decider.

Hewett refused to walk through it.

He clawed back the breaks, refused to let the set go, and dragged Oda into a tie-break that crackled with tension. Every rally felt loaded – with Oda’s pursuit of perfection on one side of the net and Hewett’s fight for redemption on the other.

When the Briton finally closed it out 7-5 in the breaker, the roar told its own story. This was not just about an 11th Grand Slam singles title. It was about proving, to himself as much as to anyone else, that the player who had been “champing at the bit” for six weeks could still dominate the biggest stage.

A dream denied, respect intact

For Oda, this was a brutal end to an extraordinary run. Victories at the Australian Open, Roland Garros and Wimbledon had set up the chance to sweep all four majors in the same year – a rare and glittering target in any form of the sport.

“Definitely I was trying to get the calendar year [Grand Slam] this year,” he said on court, the disappointment clear. “This was the last part of it so it's really tough for me, but I think Alfie deserved it today.”

He was right. On this day, in this arena, Hewett’s level and resolve outstripped everything Oda could throw at him.

The win capped a superb week for the 28-year-old Briton, who had already taken the doubles title on Friday alongside long-time partner Gordon Reid. The singles crown completes another New York double, a tournament that continues to feel like his territory, his court, his city.

Oda will come again. A player who strings together six straight majors does not fade quietly. But in the season that looked like it might belong entirely to the Japanese star, Hewett has carved his own line through the story.

He stopped the sweep. He reclaimed himself. And as the hard courts of Flushing Meadows emptied, it was hard to escape one thought: with this version of Alfie Hewett back in the fight, how many more Grand Slams are still to come?